Remember Me
by cbssoapsgirl
Summary: Fitz met Olivia years before but how will it turn out if he can't remember ever meeting her? Can she make him remember or will she leave it be?
1. First Day

"Ms. Pope… Ms. Pope, I asked you a question."

Olivia Pope sat in her political science college class looking down at her paper when someone nudged her. She looked up at the man next to her and saw him nodding his head in the direction of the professor.

"I'm sorry, Professor, what was the question?"

"What kind of issue would our situation be? National or international?" Professor Grant asked her.

Professor Fitzgerald Grant kept his eye contact with her. She seemed oddly familiar to him from the moment she walked into his classroom. He thought if he asked her a question she'd look at him and he'd remember her.

"Any idea Ms. Pope?"

As Professor Grant was talking, the man next to Olivia wrote a note and set it on her desk. _Grant is a prick._

"I'm sorry, Professor Grant, I forgot the issue we were discussing."

"Perhaps you should come back into this universe and pay attention. I honestly don't think that's much to ask. Class is dismissed. Ms. Pope, my office."

Professor Grant left the classroom going down to his office answering his cell phone on the way.

"Sorry about Professor Grant," the man next to Olivia mentioned. "He's been off all day. I'm Jake Ballard."

"Olivia Pope. Any idea what might have gotten into him?"

"No clue. He's usually more professional than that. So is this just a filler class for you?"

"Actually, no; this is what I came here for. I'm studying to be a political fixer. Grant's my whole reason of coming here."

"Ouch, this may not be good. He doesn't seem to like you already."

"Well, hopefully he'll come around. I've got to go see him." She stuck the note in her pocket and headed down to Grant's office. The door was partially open but he seemed to be on the phone and very upset.

"That is probably the stupidest thing that you have ever said. Of course I care! She's my sister and she's dead," he shouted at the person on the other line. He stayed silent for a moment and shouted again. "The only person I don't care about is you! The rest of them all matter. You're the one that I can't stand!... I'll be on the next plane out. Just don't do a damn thing."

Olivia heard him slam the phone down on the desk and made her decision to leave. She pulled a paper out of her pocket and leaving him a note on the ground. _Sorry for your loss._ And walked away.


	2. Memorial

Olivia went home to her apartment in the south part of DC ready to get into her comfortable pajamas and head to bed. The apartment wasn't big like you would think a DC apartment would be. Just a simple studio apartment, without a kitchen, no closet, and a tiny bathroom. She couldn't afford much but it would do for how long she planned to be there.

Lying down in her bed, her phone started to ring.

"Hey dad," she answered a bit tired.

"Hey Liv, how was the first day? Everything go well?" he asked excited to hear about her day.

"It was fine. Just that first class today. Work go well?"

"Yeah, it was fine."

"I can tell there's something up. What's wrong? Do I need to come home?" Olivia asked sitting up straight.

"No, you don't need to come home, Liv. Um, Katie Sinclair died this morning. She couldn't fight anymore. I'm so sorry, Liv. I know you were close."

Olivia brushed her eyes to clear her tears and continued on. "She fought that cancer for a long time. Six years was a long fight for her and I know she was getting tired. Are you going to the funeral?"

"They just want a small memorial for her, nothing big."

"Okay, the florist downtown, Anna's, will you go down there tomorrow and have her send blue roses to her family for me, just sign my name. Katie loved blue roses."

"Sure, sweetie. I'll make sure they get them. Do you need anything? Money?"

"No dad, I'm all set. The scholarship takes care of almost everything. I'll be fine."

"Okay, Liv. Let me know if you need anything though. No matter what time, you can call me."

"I know. Goodnight dad."

Olivia hung up the phone and laid back down. Katie and Olivia had been friends since Kindergarten and beyond. But after Katie was diagnosed with cancer, they lost touch. Birthdays and holidays were the only times they were together.

Fitzgerald Grant got off the plane and immediately saw his mother and sister standing there by the gate waiting for him. He picked up his bag and went over to them, hugging both of them tightly.

"I'm glad you're back, Fitz," his mother, Katherine told him nearly crying.

"It's just for a few days, mom. I have to get back there soon," Fitz reminded her.

Fitz's sister, Abby, smacked his head from behind. "Your sister just died; don't you think you can be a bit more compassionate?"

"Nice to see you too, Abby. How's the boyfriend of the week?"

"You two knock it off right now!" Katherine yelled at them. "I don't want to listen to this all the way home."

Fitz and Abby muttered their apologies and followed Katherine out to the car. He wasn't looking forward to being home even for a few days. He never got along with Abby or his father. Katie was his favorite other than his mother.

"How is dad? He doing okay with his favorite being gone?"

"He's alright, Fitzgerald. And please don't start anything with him this week. You won't be here for long and I want to enjoy what I can with you, even under these circumstances," Katherine begged.

"I know, I know. I'm going to stay out of his way for four days and then go home. Everything will be fine."

For three days, Fitz did just that. The memorial was filled with all people from the family from all over the country. The Sinclair estate had been completely taken over by the family.

Walking around the memorial at the church, Fitz looked at the flowers by the portrait of his late sister and a particular one caught his eye. Fitz excused himself from the discussion he was having with a few cousins and went to it. The only thing standing out to him was the blue roses. Seeing them he remembered a conversation he once had with Katie about them. She used to draw them on any spare paper she saw lying around.

 _"Again with blue roses? Why not pink or white? Something realistic, Katie," Fitz joked snatching the colored pencil away from his sixteen year old sister._

 _"Why not blue? It's the color of your eyes, something wrong with blue?" she asked taking the pencil back._

 _"Have you ever seen a blue rose? Is there even such a thing?"_

 _"Have you ever not seen a blue rose, Fitz?"_

 _"Are you going all 'Alice in Wonderland' caterpillar on me?"_

 _"There are blue roses. They are just hard to find. Did you know that every color rose has a different meaning?"_

 _"Like red means 'I love you'?"_

 _"There are more than red ones. But they do mean that, if it's a certain shade of red. Yellow means you hope they get well. White is a sign of purity. Pink means thank you."_

 _"But you only like the blue ones. What do those mean?"_

 _"The impossible. Nothing is ever really impossible. You think there's no such thing as a blue rose but really there is. It's possible. Just like me beating this cancer is possible."_

Fitz leaned over the rest of the flowers grabbing the card attached to the blue roses and read it. _She will be missed by many. Sorry for your loss. ~ Olivia Pope._ He took the card and put it in his pocket beyond pissed off.

When he got back to DC, Ms. Olivia Pope was going to get an earful.


	3. Confrontation

Fitz looked over the card that Olivia sent with the flowers over and over for hours while he was in California and in DC. He wasn't sure what to think of it. When he left to go home the day he found out Katie died, he found the note from Olivia on the ground. The words _Grant is a prick_ stuck out first then the side that she wrote on. Fitz called the secretary of the department to find her and let Olivia know he wanted to see her in his office the next day.

After Olivia got the call that she was summoned to his office, her nerves got the best of her. If he remembered her than he would have just shown up where she lived, wouldn't he? If he was telling her to come to his office, she was surely in trouble. But for what?

In the morning she threw on her jeans and grabbed a t-shirt from her closet and put on her shoes walking down to the campus.

After her half hour walk to the building, Olivia found Professor Grant's office and lightly knocked hoping he wasn't there.

No such luck.

"Come in Ms. Pope," he told her. Olivia could hear the irritation in his voice.

Calmly, she opened the door and waited for further instructions. After a moment he ushered her to take a seat in front of his desk.

"Are you a comedian, Ms. Pope?" he suddenly asked after what felt like an eternity of silence. "Well?"

"I'm sorry, Professor. I'm not sure what you mean," she told him quietly.

"It's a simple question. Are you or are you not a comedian? Do you think you are funny? The class clown?"

"No, sir. Why would you ask?"

"Because obviously these two things are funny to you," he threw the card and note down in front of her. "I'd love to know what universe these are funny in."

Olivia looked over them both and tried to come up with words of how to explain this to him.

"These are not funny. It never would be funny."

"But calling me a prick is funny?"

"I didn't write that. It was from someone else."

"The other side is yours. You're very sorry for my loss apparently."

"I am."

"And you never showed up after class the last time here."

"The door was closed."

"The door was not closed, Ms. Pope. I intentionally left it open waiting for you to come in."

"It was partially closed. And then I heard you on the phone. You seemed upset and I…"

"Thought you could fix whatever was wrong with a note and a card with blue roses?"

"The card wasn't actually meant for you. Neither were the flowers. They were meant for the family."

"Do NOT bring my family into this. This is the mess that you've created for yourself. For whatever idiotic reason you think you are allowed to send flowers to my sister's memorial. You have no right."

"They were for…"

"I don't care who they were for. You sent them and you don't even know us."

"I do know."

"The research that you've done is not knowing my family. It's stalking, Ms. Pope. A criminal offense."

"Professor Grant, I'm not sure where you think this is going but I can honestly say I meant no offense sending the card and flowers. No offense to anyone."

"Add insult to injury. Are you calling me an idiot? Because you think you know a person by the research you have done means nothing to my family."

"Sir, I…"

"You are never to contact my family in any way ever again. Are we clear?" Olivia nodded slightly and he continued. "Now that we have an agreement, you're dismissed."

"But, Professor Gra…"

"Dismissed Ms. Pope. As in 'get out'."

Without saying another word, Olivia picked up her bag and went out. When she got out of his office and outside the rain was pouring down. Not having a choice, Olivia zipped her jacket and pulled up her hood starting to walk home.

Olivia walked for twenty minutes to get home when a car pulled up beside her. She reminded herself not to look that it could be someone dangerous.

"Get in," the man said from the driver's seat with the passenger window down. "You're going to catch pneumonia."

Olivia kept walking recognizing the voice. "No thanks, I'm almost home."

"Just get in the car," he shouted again.

"Thanks but I'm good."

"Get in the damn car!"

Olivia turned slowly looking at the man who just yelled at her. After a moment she got in the car and put her seatbelt on.

"Thank you Professor Grant."


	4. Tea

"Thank you Professor Grant," Olivia said when she buckled in.

"Where do you live?"

"Just up on K street. Turn left at the…"

"I know where it is. What's the address?"

"970," she said quietly. She held her bag closer to her chest for protection. "Sorry for soaking the seat."

"I have someone who cleans it."

Olivia looked out the passenger window wondering why she ever bothered to get in the car with him. She knew this would happen if they were together like this. After the five minute drive was up, she reached out to grab the handle to open the door but he caught her wrist.

"Wait," he said. Fitz jumped out of the car with an umbrella and went to her side opening the door for her and walked her to the door.

"Thank you again, Professor." Olivia pulled her bag in front of her searching for her keys but was unable to open the bag.

Irritated, Fitz took the bag from her and dug through it finding her keys and handing them to her. She took the keys and started looking for the one to open the front door of the building. Unable to fit the key in the lock, Olivia dropped the keys to the floor. More annoyed, Fitz bent down picking them up and opened the door.

"I'll walk you up to your apartment," he told her.

Without thinking, Olivia nodded and led him up to her door. She took the keys from him and opened her apartment door stepping in. She turned around and opened the door wider for him.

"Would you like any tea?"

"Why would I want tea?"

Olivia looked down to the floor a bit embarrassed by her question. "You gave me a ride home. Courtesy would demand that I ask you inside for something to drink. I only have tea. Thank you for the ride home, Professor," she said starting to close the door.

"Wait," Fitz said putting his hand up to stop the door. "I suppose the courtesy would demand that I do actually take the tea and have a small conversation with you. So, yes, I'll take tea, Ms. Pope."

Olivia stepped aside and let him in. Fitz looked around the apartment looking for the kitchen.

"Ms. Pope, I'm a bit confused. How do you make tea without a kitchen? Or is there a fairy that drops in and gives you tea?" Crossing her arms, Olivia walked over and grabbed the tea kettle taking it to the bathroom to fill with water. "How long have you lived here?"

"I thought I was the snoopy one, Professor?"

"It's just a simple question, Ms. Pope."

"One month. Which tea would you like?" She held up two bags and he picked one.

"But there's no kitchen. And very little places to sit. Or move around." She started to wish that she hadn't asked him to come in, courtesy be damned. "Why live here?"

"If you must know, it was my only option."

"But there are plenty of other places or the dorms or…"

"Professor Grant, I don't want to sound rude or anything but how about I finish this tea and we can sit here quietly and drink it. A comfortable silence will do me some good."

"Isn't it courtesy to have a conversation with your company?"

"Fine, we'll do it your way. What are we talking about?"

"Anything I guess."

"Anything? That's a pretty broad topic. Especially since…" she started to say but stopped herself.

"Since what?"

"Nothing, forget I said anything."

"No obviously you have something to say."

"Just never mind, it doesn't matter now anyway."

"If you have something to say, Ms. Pope, then say it."

Olivia poured both their teas into glasses and sat at the card table with the chairs around it, not saying anything.

The two sat there drinking tea in the very uncomfortable silence in the room. After a few minutes, Fitz grew too uncomfortable and decided to open his mouth.

"This place is awful. You have no privacy or a kitchen. It doesn't look like you don't have food anywhere around here. What do you even eat?"

Olivia set her tea down on the table and looked down. "I eat a lot of popcorn since I have a microwave."

"That's all you eat?"

"That's what I can afford, Professor."

"What you can afford? How much is this hole?"

"Seven hundred plus everything."

"Ms. Pope, you got a shit deal." Fitz looked around and saw Olivia out of the corner of his eye. She looked down at the floor, looking ashamed. "I should be going."

Olivia stood up and took his coat from the other the door hanger and handed it to him. Without looking at him, she opened the door and let him walk out.

"Goodnight, Professor Grant. Thank you for the ride again," she told him closing the door.

Fitz stood on the other side of the door for a few minutes. He immediately started feeling guilty for degrading her home and situation. He took another moment to decide and knocked on her door.

Olivia silently prayed that he'd just go away and leave her be but after the fifth knock she knew he wouldn't. She slowly opened the door only enough to peak her head out.

"Yes, Professor?"

"When was the last time you ate? Not popcorn, but a real meal?"

"I'm not sure. Why?"

"Change into something more suitable and I'll take you to dinner."

She stood surprised and put one hand on her hip the other on the door handle.

"And why would you take me to dinner? Because as far as I've seen there's nothing we have in common or to talk about. You've made your remarks about my home and about my life very well known. I got the picture, Professor, you don't like me. So please explain to me why I would ever want to go to dinner with you."

Fitz stood a little shocked that she would actually speak to him like that. When he didn't answer, she started closing the door.

"Jake Ballard was right," he announced stopped her from closing him out. "I am a prick. I've been very rude when you were nice and invited me in for tea. This is my way of apologizing. So will you please allow me to make up for my rudeness and take you to a proper dinner?"

Olivia took a minute to think about it.

"Let me change."


	5. Dinner

Olivia pulled on her black dress that fell to her knees and a pair of flats after she dried her hair. Fitz took her out to a nice restaurant to show his apology instead of saying it. He was better with actions than with his words. The ride to the restaurant and ordering the food were both done in silence. A very uncomfortable silence. Fitz watched as the waited attempted to flirt with her and effectively dismissed him.

"Do you think we might be able to get our drinks?" he barked at him. The waiter looked at him a moment and went on his way.

Olivia looked down at her fingers unsure of what to say. When Fitz didn't say anything she decided now might be the perfect opportunity to tell him about Katie.

"Professor Grant, I am very sorry for your loss of your sister. She was a great person. And she…"

"You don't know anything about her and I'd much rather prefer that you NOT speak anything about her for the rest of eternity. Is that really so much to ask?"

"No, but Professor…"

"Don't. Do not try to finish the conversation. I don't want to hear about it. My sister is gone and that's all that needs to be said. I do not want your sympathy or any part of your research that you've done on my family. Let it go, Ms. Pope."

She sat quietly not wanting to make any more of an issue with him. After a growing number of minutes sat in complete silence, he spoke up.

"Why don't you live in the dorms?"

"By the time I agreed to come here, it was too late for me to get in."

"What do you mean 'agreed'? It's Georgetown; doesn't everyone want to come here?"

"I suppose so. Just this was my second choice."

"And the first?"

"Harvard."

"If you were accepted into Harvard why didn't you go?"

"Money, isn't that why everyone doesn't go? I didn't have enough money to start the initial process of going to Harvard."

"So you chose Georgetown instead. That's an interesting trade off."

"Not really," she muttered.

"I didn't catch that, Ms. Pope."

"Nothing."

"So what is your program of study?"

"Politics."

"Well then you are either here for me or Beene and I highly doubt you're here for him," he laughed taking a bite.

Olivia carefully cut her food not able to say anything. She wanted to dive right into her food but remembered that around him, her manners had to be in definite order. Liv couldn't remember the last time she ate something that wasn't popcorn, it'd been so long. She kept looking at her, cutting her steak into smaller pieces, focusing on it.

"Are you going to eat it or pick at it?" Fitz commented making her jump.

"Eat, thank you Professor."

Olivia took small bites, carefully chewing but started to eat faster which he noticed.

"No one is going to take it from you. You're eating like you haven't seen food in your life," he stated making her slow down.

"Sorry," she frowned taking smaller bites.

Fitz noted that she hadn't smiled at his comment but after thinking about the words that just flew out of his mouth, she probably wouldn't.

"I apologize. I'm not very good with being a proper host. I'd just prefer you not get sick in the car." Olivia nodded still looking down at her food. "Again, it seems my mouth gets away from me when you're here."

Olivia picked up her napkin from her lap and set it on the table, standing up. "I'm sorry, Professor. I knew this was a bad idea," she said putting her coat on. "Enjoy the rest of your dinner. I'll find a way home."

Before he could say anything, Olivia was out the door on the sidewalk.

Leaving his coat, he ran out after her.

"Ms. Pope, wait!" he called down the street to her.

Without thinking, Olivia stopped at his voice and faced the direction she was walking.

"Where are you going? It's late and in DC. How are you getting home?"

"I'll walk."

"Ten miles in those shoes?"

"Honestly, I'd rather walk than be around you right now, Professor Grant."

Fitz nodded knowing he was being incredibly rude tonight. "I apologize. I know I'm not the best of company tonight. Let's go back in and finish dinner and I'll drive you home." Olivia hesitated not wanting to be around him anymore. "Ms. Pope, please let's just go back in. Are you really going to waste steak because I'm an ass?" Rolling her eyes, she continued walking to go home but Fitz grabbed her arm. "Again, I'm sorry. I don't know what's gotten into me tonight. Could we please pretend to be civil and go back in to finish eating?"

Olivia gave it a moment's thought and decided to go back in.

She turned around following him into to restaurant and sat down continuing to eat.

Once their dinner was over he took her home and walked her to the door. She found her key and turned back to him.

"Professor Grant, thank you for dinner. I know it wasn't the ideal situation of how you wanted to spend your evening or who you wanted to spend it with. I know my behavior could have been better and I apologize for that. Believe me we will not have to do that again."

"This evening has been very different than what I planned for it to be. But I did appreciate the company even if it was against my will."

Olivia rolled her eyes and put the key in the lock. "I'm so very sorry that you had to spend your time with someone so beneath you, Professor. No one held a gun to your head making you if I recall. But believe me; you will not have to spend any time with me ever again. Good night!" she yelled slamming the door behind her.

Fitz watched her go up to her floor from outside. Whatever he had known about Olivia Pope had just flown out the window.


	6. Visiting

"Excuse me; I'm looking for Fitzgerald Grant's office. Can you tell me where to find it?" a woman asked at the front desk of the library.

Olivia looked up from her books to see the woman whose voice sounded familiar.

"Mrs. Sinclair!" she said a bit too loudly. Olivia got up and walked over to her. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to see Fitz. Liv, I didn't know you were coming here. It's been so long since I've seen you sweetie. Is there somewhere we can go to catch up?"

Olivia packed up her books and walked out with Katherine and took her to the coffee shop across the street.

"How are you doing? When did you get here, Liv?" Katherine asked a bit excited to see her.

"A couple months ago. I'm doing alright. I was sorry to hear about Katie, Mrs. Sinclair."

"You can call me Katherine, Liv. Why didn't your father tell us you were coming here for school?"

"This wasn't the plan. I wasn't supposed to go to Georgetown, remember? It wasn't the right college."

"But it's Georgetown. I know it's not Harvard but it's still good." Katherine watched Olivia look down at her coffee. "You were accepted into Harvard, weren't you? Why didn't you go? Katie never said anything about you going to Harvard."

"Katie didn't know. We lost touch after she got sick. I'm so sorry about that. I did get accepted into Harvard but Dad couldn't afford the payment."

"Sweetie, why didn't you tell me? We would've helped you."

"I couldn't ask you to do that. I'm saving all the money that I can for Harvard for the next two years."

"Come on, we're going to get you some real food."

"Katherine, I'm fine."

"You aren't eating."

"I eat. I had steak just the other day."

"That's good. Like on a date?"

"NO! Definitely not a date," she barked. "Sorry, just… it wasn't a date. He didn't want to be anywhere near me. It was more of an apology dinner."

"That's a big apology. Was it a classmate?"

"Worse."

"A professor?"

"Let's talk about something else. How's everybody back home? Abby doing okay? What about you?"

"Everyone's doing alright. Abby's fine. Tom's doing okay. I think he took Katie's death the hardest. He's coping. I'm alright. We all knew it was coming."

"I'm so sorry. I sent flowers."

"I figured those were from you. But there wasn't a card. Why didn't you send a card with it?"

"I did send a card but…" Olivia and Katherine jumped and turned their heads to the window where a hard knock came from. "I have to go."

Olivia stood up grabbing her bag trying to leave before he got closer to her.

No such luck.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Fitz screamed at her. "What the hell are you doing with her?"

"FITZGERALD GRANT! How dare you speak to her like that!" Katherine yelled at him.

"Do you have any sense at all? When did I say it was okay to sit down with my mother and interview her for your damn research, Ms. Pope?"

"Professor, I'm so sorry..."

"You're always sorry for something. Get out of here and don't ever let me see you near my family again."

"Katherine, I've got to go. I hope you enjoy your visit."

"Don't talk to her," Fitz barked at Olivia.

"Fitzgerald Grant! Mind your mouth and sit down. You too, Olivia."

"I really should go, Katherine. Give me a call when you get the chance."

Before Katherine could protest, Olivia ran out of the coffee shop leaving Fitz with his mother.

"You had no right to speak to her like that. And you will apologize to her," Katherine ordered.

"I refuse to apologize to a stalker, mother. Why didn't you tell me you were in town?"

"I didn't know I had to report my coming and goings to you. And that lovely girl is not a stalker and you know it." Fitz looked confused to her. "Dear Lord, you have no idea who she is, do you?"

"A pain in my ass is what she is."

Katherine leaned over the table and smacked his head. "Watch your mouth. And don't ever talk about Olivia like that again."

"Enlighten me please; you seem to be very comfortable around her. Who is she? She sent flowers, blue roses to Katie's memorial and knows everything about her and our family. She's done her homework on us. And she's here at Georgetown only for my class. Now if that doesn't sound like a stalker, I don't know what she is."

"She's Katie's best friend."


	7. Sorry

"She's Katie's best friend?" Fitz asked his mother again. "What is she doing here? Shouldn't she be back in California or something?"

"Olivia is a political science major. She came here for your class because you are the best. You can teach her everything you know. She's not a stalker to anyone. Olivia is here only for your class and then she'll be leaving to go on to do better things. I don't see the problem that you are having with her," Katherine informed him.

Fitz took several minutes to think about the way that he'd treated her since they met and was immediately ashamed of himself. He'd been so cruel to here when she was trying to give him sympathy all while she was mourning her friend too.

"Well, now that we know that I'm an ass. How am I supposed to make it right?"

"Perhaps you should go find her and apologize? I think that would be the best place to start."

"I will, later. How are you anyway? You never said you were coming to DC."

"I came to surprise you. I wanted to visit my son. Is that a crime now?"

"No, of course not. Let's go back to my house and I'll make you some dinner."

Olivia ran out of the coffee shop and down the street back to her apartment. She knew Fitz would over react but she and Katherine had been friends forever. Having coffee with her shouldn't be a big deal to Fitz.

For several days Olivia spent her time in her apartment studying. She didn't want to take the chance that she would run into Katherine and Fitz and have him yell at her again. On her third day of isolation she received a text message from Jake asking if she would join him for dinner. Thinking about it for an hour, Liv responded telling him she would.

"You look beautiful, Olivia," Jake told her pulling her chair out at the restaurant.

"Thanks. You didn't have to invite me for dinner, Jake."

"Well, I figure this way I can spend some time talking to you without Grant giving me a death glare."

"What are you talking about? Why would he do that?"

"Let's just say that he is Fitzgerald Grant and has a temper. Especially when it comes to you, for some reason. He's been asking me about you."

"Did he say why?"

"No, just that he needed to see you soon. Grant doesn't elaborate on things. Either way, I'm glad you decided to join me tonight."

"Me too."

All through the night Olivia's mind kept drifting off to Fitz. Why would he want to see her? Maybe he remembered her? Maybe he remembered her as more than Katie's friend? In a way, she didn't really want to know why he would be looking for her. He knew where she lived. If he was desperate, he'd find her.

After Jake was done telling Olivia all about his entire life, he drove her home to her apartment. Quickly, as if she couldn't get away fast enough, she said goodnight and jumped out of the car to the sidewalk. Liv quickly unlocked the front door and went up to her apartment. Once she changed into her pajamas and lay down on her bed there was a knock on the door.

 _Please don't let that be Jake._

Quietly, Liv got up and went to the door looking through the peephole. Professor Grant stood back so she could see him.

"What are you doing here?" she asked through the door.

"I believe we need to talk, Ms. Pope," he answered.

Liv pulled the door open just enough to pop her head out. "I don't believe that we do, Professor. So if you've come here to yell at me like you did before I would very much appreciate it if you just left."

"I'm… I'm not here to yell at you. I just wanted to apologize for yelling at you."

"Is your mother making you do this?"

"Why would she make me apologize?"

"That is what Katherine would want you to do. And since I'm quite certain that you would never apologize of your own free will I can only assume that Katherine is making you do this. In which case, you are here under a direct order from Katherine to apologize and I will not accept a forced apology. I don't believe we have anything else to discuss, Sir."

"Mom told me you were difficult. Why didn't you tell me that you and Katie were friends?"

"I tried to explain that to you but you told me to shut up. You said that you didn't want to hear it."

"And I apologize for that. I'd just like to make it up to you somehow. Is that hard to believe?"

"Professor, now that you know that I am your late sister's best friend, do you think that changes anything? Anything at all?"

"Why would it change anything?"

"I have been a friend of your family for years. Do you think that changes how you treat me? Or am I still the stalker pain in your ass?"

"Honestly, Ms. Pope, I'm just here to apologize for being an ass. That's all I'm here for. I came, I apologized, and I hope you accept it but I'm not going to hold my breath. Thank you for your time; I'll see you in class tomorrow."

"Fine, I accept your apology. Goodnight Professor."


	8. Flirt

"You are too cute, Professor," Olivia overheard part of a conversation as she walked into the classroom. Unsure what was happening, she stood and watched for a moment.

"She really is sickening," a voice said behind her. Liv turned around to see Jake standing behind her.

"Who is that anyway? I don't think I've seen her before," Liv asked him.

"That's Amanda Tanner. Let's just say she's the Georgetown slut. Amanda's slept with almost every male professor here. And it looks like she's trying to make ours her next victim. The girl has no class."

"So her goal is to sleep with Grant to make the grade?"

"That's part one of her plan. I believe her end game is to be his wife. But I'm thinking that's not going to happen."

"Why not? And doesn't she know about the non-fraternization policy? Doesn't everyone know about that policy?"

"Most do, but not everyone thinks of sleeping with their professor to get the grade. Some of us actually work for it. How do you know about the policy? Did you read the handbook?" Olivia was silent a moment and Jake started to laugh. "You really read the handbook?"

"Cover to cover. I thought it was important to know. Why wouldn't she become his wife? I guess she's pretty and the way I hear about Grant, he's up for anything."

"Grant can be a whore but Amanda isn't really his type."

"And you know his type?"

"He's more of a sleep with them once and gets the hell out kind of guy from what I gather. But that's just me. Anyway, he's going to give us a project that we have to work in partners tonight, want to work together?"

"Um, sure we can. But let me find out more about the project first."

Jake moved over a few seats so Olivia could sit next to him during the class. As he did, he noticed Fitz staring at them and ignoring Amanda. Jake didn't know what that was all about but Fitz seemed to be looking more at Olivia than him. He looked over to see Olivia pulling out her notebook and pencil from her bag, preparing for class.

Even though Fitz was clearly paying attention to something else, Amanda kept flirting to get his attention.

"Ms. Tanner, please take your seat," Fitz told her in a serious tone. Amanda was clearly annoyed that her tactics were not working on him and took her seat. "Alright, politics today. Everyone been keeping up with the news?"

As Fitz went on with his lecture, he kept glancing over at Olivia and Jake. Several times that he looked over to them; Jake was too close to Olivia for his comfort. He had his arm around her chair; his body positioned towards her and was whispering in her ear.

"Mr. Ballard, do you think you could pay attention or is that too much for your mind to comprehend?"

"Sorry Professor, I was just helping Olivia."

"Ms. Pope seems very capable of helping herself," Fitz nearly screamed.

Jake moved his body to sit straight forward listening to Fitz talk for the next hour.

When Fitz was done with the lecture, he dismissed the class and left the room quickly.

"Was it just me or did he seem more like a douche than usual?" Jake asked making her laugh.

"Well, you weren't paying attention. And I think that annoyed him."

"I think that I was paying attention to you more was the annoying part to him. What's his problem with you anyway? Has he said anything?"

"Grant and I don't talk. I'm not sure what his problem is with me. But it's not a big deal. There's just a few months left for the term. What could go wrong?"

"A lot. A lot of things could go wrong."

"Such as?"

"He could fail you. He could hit on you. He could make you sleep with him for your grade."

"The likelihood of any of that happening in none. Grant wouldn't want me and there's no reason to fail me. Another professor would look at my work and see absolutely nothing wrong with it."

"Still…"

"No, not still Jake. Nothing is going to go wrong because nothing is wrong. I don't know what it is you have against him but let it go. Or just don't bring it up around me. There's nothing wrong with me and Grant. And if you have an issue with him, take it to him. Don't bring me into your issues with him."

Olivia picked up her things and left the room tired of hearing about Fitz. Their past was something that she didn't want to discuss with anyone but Fitz. And from her view, even though he knew she was Katie's friend, he still had no idea who she was. Hopefully, he'd figure out who she was soon.


	9. Drunk

"Why is it so hard to believe that I don't want to sleep with you Ms. Tanner? Have you really slept with that many people that me saying no hurts your ego?"

Olivia stepped behind the post hiding herself from them. She stepped inside the coffee shop to turn in her application and was stunned to hear Fitz yelling at Amanda in front of everyone.

"Professor, I never meant anything like that!" Amanda pretended to defend herself as she noticed people turning their heads to see her.

"I'm very well aware that I am drunk right now but I'm positive that I will never sleep with you. God only knows what kind of STDs you have," Fitz barked walking away.

He took his coffee and headed out to the sidewalk walking right past Olivia and not saying anything. Liv waited a few seconds and followed him out saying far enough behind him that he wouldn't think he was being followed. Fitz was stumbling all over the sidewalk and leaning against brick buildings to keep himself up. Fitz drank his coffee walking home with Olivia only ten feet behind him. After his coffee was gone he threw it away in the trash next to the bench and stopped to sit down.

"You don't need to follow me for the next twelve blocks, Ms. Pope," Fitz yelled loud enough for her to hear from around the corner where she was hiding. Olivia came out standing on the other side of the bench. "It's a long walk to my place and it'll be an even longer one for you from my place back to yours."

Olivia held her books in front of her trying to shield herself from him. "How'd you know it was me and not Amanda?"

"Lucky guess."

"You've never guessed at anything ever."

"True. I sensed it was you. Now I'm a stalker. Doesn't that make me sound like a stalker?"

"No, it doesn't make you sound like a stalker. It makes you… never mind."

"Why are you following me exactly? Are you stalking me?"

Olivia let out a deep breath trying to remain calm and not kill him on the streets of DC. "You are very drunk and if something were to happen to you…"

"What? Katie wouldn't forgive you because we're in the same city? Look around. Katie's not here and she's not ever going to be. Katie is dead. I don't get why you are so attached to my family anyway. You didn't talk to her for years since she found out about her cancer. But you send blue roses to her family. What is it with you and this family?"

"Look, Professor. I'm not trying to cause any issues with anyone and certainly not you. If Katherine were to find out that you got drunk and never make it home and I knew something about it, the woman would have my head. I'd just like to make sure that you get home okay so that I can go home."

"Why do you care?"

"Because I do. Where'd you park?"

Fitz told her where he left his car and she went to get it. She came back and picked him up taking him home. She found his apartment key and took him in.

"How much Scotch did you drink? You smell like the whole bar of it."

"The room is spinning."

"Just hold on, I'll get you something." Olivia ran to the kitchen and looked through the cupboards looking for a bowl. She found a bucket underneath the sink and took it over to him. "Where's your bedroom?" Fitz opened his eyes to look at her questioningly. "So you can lay down, of course."

Fitz pointed down the hall and she helped him to it. He laid down on the bed but sat up fast and threw up all over her shirt. Olivia quickly turned him on his side towards the bucket letting him finish what he needed. As he continued, Olivia stepped into his bathroom and pulled off the disgusting shirt tossing it in the bathtub to soak in soapy water. Turning around to go out, she realized she had no top on and he was still awake. Liv pulled a towel out from the closet and wrapped it around herself before going back out.

"I'm going to borrow one of your shirts, okay?"

Fitz pointed towards his dresser for her to grab one. "I didn't mean to throw up on you," he let out quietly.

Olivia slipped on a grey NAVY shirt and went back into the bathroom wetting a washcloth and sat down on the bed next to him. "Even when you're drunk you won't say you're sorry. Interesting Grant." Liv dabbed at his forehead to help him relax and fall asleep. "Honestly, I don't understand you."

"I know, sweet baby, I know."

"Wait, what did you say?"

"Shh, I'm trying to sleep, Livie. Be quiet sweet baby."

Fitz put his head back on the pillow and fell asleep. Liv went back into the bathroom rewetting the washcloth. She opened the medicine cabinet and found the ibuprofen. She found a bottle of water in the fridge and set it with the medicine on the nightstand. Liv quietly closed the door with the lights off and went to the living room. She turned on the light and went to work on her studying. Liv thought of leaving but didn't want to leave him to choke on his own vomit. After an hour of studying, Olivia laid down on the couch falling asleep.


	10. Hungover

Olivia woke up around eight the next morning on Fitz's couch in the living room. Still dressed in only his shirt that fell to her knees, she went to the kitchen and found pancake mix. Liv started to make them both breakfast and read her chapters for her class later in the day. As she went to turn the page she heard a cell phone ringing very loudly. Not wanting to wake him up, Olivia went towards the table next to the door quickly answering it.

"Hello," Liv answered in a hushed tone.

"Where's Fitz?" a woman yelled at her.

"He's asleep. It's too early for you to talk to him now. Call him back later."

"Wake him up! I want to talk to him NOW!"

"I can't do that. I'll let him know you called, what's your name?"

"Listen whore, you tell him that Mellie called and he needs to call me back the second his ass wakes up."

Olivia hung up the phone and put it back on the table heading back to finish breakfast.

Fitz slowly opened his eyes looking at the clock beside him. 11:49am. Sitting up slowly, he saw the ibuprofen and water next to him. He took a couple of the pills and downed them with the water. Getting up he grabbed the pants off the floor and slid them on leaving the bedroom. Going into the living room he saw Olivia standing at the counter in his NAVY shirt reading a book.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Fitz screamed at her making her jump back. He waited a minute for her to say something but she seemed to have lost the ability to speak. "Well?"

"I was waiting for… for you to wake up," she told him a little confused why he was yelling at her. "I made you breakfast. I thought you might be hungry after throwing up all night."

"You spent the night? How the fuck did you get in here?"

"You… you let me in. Don't you remember?"

"Obviously not or I wouldn't be asking you questions, now would I?"

"You were drunk and I brought you home. You needed someone to take care of you."

"Shit," he muttered. Fitz looked more closely over her outfit. Wearing only his NAVY shirt and looking like there was nothing under it he started to freak. "Did we fuck?"

Olivia stood at the counter speechless staring at him. How could he say that? What kind of person did he take her for?

"Answer the question, Ms. Pope. Did you and I have sex last night?"

Still, Olivia only stared at him. She couldn't believe the words he was saying to her. Liv went back into the laundry room next to the front door and pulled her wet clothes out of the dryer.

"God damn it! Answer me!"

Olivia heard the loud crash from the living room and hurried herself to get dressed and run. Once she was dressed she quietly and quickly left the laundry room grabbing her phone off the table and put her sandals on. She looked over at the living room and saw the glass table that sat in the middle of the room was shattered to pieces. She went to turn the handle still eyeing the table and felt his hand on hers.

"Answer the damn question. Did we have sex last night or not?"

Olivia stared at the floor contemplating her next move. "No, we didn't and thank God because I don't think I'd want to be with you ever again."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Out of my way, Grant. Leave it alone and let your mother know you didn't choke on your own vomit and die. She'll be grateful to hear from you when there isn't a death in the family."

"What in hell are you talking about?"

"Just move."

"Really? You think I'm going to let you leave here without explaining yourself about what you just said?"

Before Olivia could say anything, Fitz's phone rang behind him. "That's probably the woman who called me a whore this morning. You should take that. She seems more like your 'sweet baby' than I am."

When Fitz grabbed his phone, Olivia made her escape down the hall but Fitz was behind her. But not close enough that he could catch the elevator door.

He ran down the stairs trying to get to the first floor. When he reached the ground floor, Olivia was nowhere in sight.

"OLIVIA!"


	11. How We Met

_Olivia walked into the Sinclair estate like she always did heading up to Katie's room to work on homework with her when she heard the yelling coming from the living room._

 _"We just want to help you, Fitz!" Katherine yelled at him. "You passed out on the driveway last night. You were lucky one of us noticed you pull in; you could have spent the night on the concrete out there. Fitz, you need to…"_

 _"Grow up!" his father, George Sinclair finished. "You cannot continue to go on these binges and not have consequences for them. It's time to start acting like a man and put your head on straight. You got yourself into this mess and I got you out but this is the last time. You do it again and you can rot in jail for all I care."_

 _Olivia went to peak around the corner but Katie pulled her back into the kitchen._

 _"You don't want to go in there," Katie told her._

 _"Who is that? And why are they yelling at him?"_

 _"That's my brother, Fitzgerald Grant."_

 _"You never told me you had a brother. Just Abby."_

 _"Fitz is kind of a black sheep. He only comes around when he needs something recently. I guess he needed money last night and came looking for some. I don't know what happened exactly. And he's hung over now or he got into Dad's Scotch again after he went to sleep. They got into a fight earlier and he punched dad."_

 _"So he's violent?"_

 _"Not really. Dad pissed him off and he decked him."_

 _"Weird."_

 _Katie ran upstairs with Olivia. Both attempted to finish their homework for school but couldn't focus with all the yelling downstairs. After an hour of getting nothing done, Olivia decided she should go. She went downstairs out the front and saw Fitz going around the front porch towards the back of the ranch. Without thinking she followed him back._

 _Fitz headed down to the stables sensing someone following him. He walked up to one of the horses and petted their neck._

 _"Didn't someone ever teach you it's not polite to follow someone?" Fitz said not looking at her._

 _"I didn't think you'd mind," Olivia told him standing by the doorway._

 _"Which one of the maids is your mom? Since you look too young to be a maid yourself."_

 _"None of them. Katie is my friend."_

 _"Twerp has a friend? A black friend?"_

 _"She didn't tell me you were racist."_

 _"I'm not. I'm just surprised George lets her hangout with someone of a different color."_

 _"Your dad is great. He's always inviting me to stay for dinner."_

 _"He's not my dad."_

 _"Oh. Katie said you had a different last name. But she didn't say why. Why do you have a different last name? I don't see Katherine having an affair."_

 _"You are very nosy. Don't start something you can't finish, little girl."_

 _"My name is Olivia," she said rolling her eyes. "I'm sixteen, not a little girl."_

 _"Still."_

 _"No. Not still. Sixteen is not a little girl. Why'd you come back anyway?"_

 _"It's complicated, Livie. So complicated that you have no idea how to comprehend it."_

 _"I take calculus math and rocket science. How can anything be more complicated than that?"_

 _Fitz sat down on a hay bale and motioned for her to sit next to him. "I needed money."_

 _As Olivia got closer to him she could smell the liquor coming through his pores. "For what?"_

 _"Name it. My gambling debts, my bar tab, rent, car, electricity. But mostly my gambling debts. I was very close to death last night. I knew mom would give me money. But George got in the way."_

 _"How much do you need?" Olivia reached into her purse but Fitz stopped her._

 _"More than you will have in years."_

 _"Give me a price."_

 _"$60,000."_

 _"Well, that is a little out of my range but I have some."_

 _"No, Livie. I have the money now. George gave in. Thankfully my mother has a great way of bringing him to his knees. If only I knew the secret of how," Fitz smirked. "But thank you for the offer." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bottle of Scotch._

 _Olivia watched him down all of it in only a few seconds. "Why do you need to drink that much? I can smell the liquor all over you."_

 _"You are free to go whenever you want, sweet baby."_

 _"So they can find you dead in the stables? I'll stay. I'd prefer that Katherine not find her son choking on his own vomit by her horse."_

 _"I'm not that drunk."_

 _"I know a drunk when I see one, Fitz. And you are drunk. You could barely keep yourself up when you walked down here. You're tripping over your own feet. You're slurring your words. You're…"_

 _"Okay, I got it. I'm drunk. But what's the big deal?"_

 _"George and Katherine are dealing with a lot of other issues right now. The last thing they need is to have their son's funeral."_

 _"What do you care?"_

 _"I care. I consider them as family and they mean a lot to me. Fitz, don't hurt them. Please. I know you don't know me or owe me anything but just do me one favor."_

 _"And what's that, Livie?"_

 _"Stay alive. I've seen people die from drinking and it's not pretty. So please. Stay alive for them. For Katie and Abby."_

 _"Fine. I'll stay for them but more importantly, I'll stay for you. But then you have to do something for me."_

 _"Like what?"_

 _"Stay with me for a while. Just sit here with me and we can talk. I want to know everything about you. Can you do that, Livie?"_

 _Olivia looked right in his eyes seeing the desperate plea for her to stay and she nodded._

 _"What are we talking about?" she asked laying back in the hay._

 _"Well you seem to know a lot about me let's talk about you."_

 _"No, let's talk about you. That way you can stay awake with me and not pass out."_

 _Fitz laid next to her and told her everything about himself. He told her about where he lived and what he went to school for. He told her about his job at a law firm in DC and how much he loved to gamble._

 _"Why do you have Grant as your last name though?" Olivia finally asked._

 _"Katherine adopted me. My mom died when I was five and Katherine was her best friend. My dad was someone no one knew and Katherine said she'd keep me. So I am a Grant. I've never been a Sinclair."_

 _"How'd she die?"_

 _"She drank herself to death," Fitz told her. Both were laying in the hay with Fitz on his side as close to her as he could get drawing circles on her arm. She started to say something but yawned before. "Go to sleep, sweet baby. I'll wake you up later. You need your rest, Livie."_

 _"I know but I want you to do something for me. I want to give you something."_

 _"I don't think you have anything I want, Livie. Other than time with you. What do you want?"_

 _"I want you."_

 _"You've got me. I'm right here," he told her not fully understanding._

 _"No. I want you to show me you love me. Can you do that?"_

 _"Livie, you want me to have sex with you? Right here? Right now?"_

 _"Is there a better time to?"_

 _"I… Olivia…I'm…"_

 _"Oh God. You don't like me that way." Olivia covered her face in her hands hiding herself from her own humiliation._

 _Fitz bent down and kissed her neck forcing her hands away and kissed her lips. "I'd love to."_

 _After an hour Olivia was exhausted and so was he. Fitz pulled out of her and kissed her again. Each time he did he told her how much he loved her and kissed her. She was so tired from her hour exercise with him that she curled back into his arms and fell asleep._

 _When Olivia woke the next morning she turned over in the hay to see Fitz's face but was only met with strands of hay._

 _"Fitz?"_

 _Nothing._

" _Fitz?"_

 _Nothing._

 _"FITZGERALD!"_

 _When Olivia didn't hear any noise she started to cry as she got dressed and went home._


	12. Three Days Later

"Answer the phone Olivia! Come on!" Fitz yelled at the phone as it rang for the millionth time. When it finally went to her voicemail he let out a deep sigh. "Olivia, we need to talk. Call me back so we can figure out what to do. Just call me please."

Fitz hung up the phone as he sat in his office. It'd been three days since Olivia left his apartment. He'd been calling her every half hour since she left. No matter what she wouldn't answer. Fitz had thought about what she'd said the other day and realized exactly who she was. Her saying sweet baby triggered everything in his mind to the day they met.

After Olivia left the apartment in a hurry she went back to her apartment and buried herself in her bed. She was beyond upset with the way he had been treating her since she arrived in DC but felt lower than dirt with the way he talked to her three days prior. She turned off her phone when Fitz called her for the tenth time in four hours the day she left. Feeling down, she went to bed falling asleep. When she woke up at four in the morning she checked her phone seeing the thirty messages from Fitz and a couple from Jake. She listened to the first message from Fitz just for her own curiosity.

"Liv. I know you're pissed. But please let's talk about this. We can talk about this and make it work. Call me back."

Olivia deleted the message and moved on to listen to Jake's.

"Hey, Liv. Saw you weren't in class today. I took notes for you maybe we can get together and have dinner and I'll give you the notes. Let me know when you can get with me and we'll get Chinese or whatever you like."

Olivia closed her voicemails and sent Jake a text telling him she wasn't going out for a while.

Fitz flipped through some notes for his next lecture though he couldn't focus on it. He put the notes down when he heard the knock at the door.

"Come in," he said hoping more than anything it was Olivia.

"Sir," Jake popped his head in. "I just came to drop these off for you." Jake walked in handing Fitz some letters.

"Thanks. Have you by chance heard from Ms. Pope?"

"Nope, not for a couple days. She wasn't feeling well I know that."

"She's sick?" Fitz said a bit worried.

"Stomach bug I think. She's hopefully feeling better."

"Ok, I've got some things I need to talk to her about. If you hear from her will you tell her we need to talk about her assignment please?"

"Sure. Anything else?"

"No that's all, Mr. Ballard."

When Jake left and closed the door, Fitz pulled out his cell phone and called her again.

"It's me again. I just talked to Jake. Hopefully you're feeling better. I sent you flowers. I hope you got them. Liv, let's talk please. I can come over and talk to you through the door if you'll listen. Let me know how you are. I did call my mother and she says hi. She also told me not to fuck things up like I usually do. I guess it's a little late for that. Olivia, please let me fix this. I'll fix us just give me a chance. Call me please."

After a few hours of sleep, Olivia checked her messages again. She heard the latest one from Fitz and was irritated. Before she could set her phone down, Katherine called her. Olivia thought about it for a moment but decided she better answer.

"Hi Katherine," Olivia said still groggy.

"Hey Liv, want to explain what happened?"

"Right to the point, huh?"

"It makes things easier. Now what happened between you and Fitz?"

"We just had a fight. That's all."

"There's more to it. I know you helped Fitz when he was drunk again. Thank you for that. But he said the fight was the next day. What happened?"

"Katherine, I promise, it's nothing you want to get into. I stayed the night to make sure he didn't die or anything and when he woke up… it just didn't go well. So how are you doing? How's George and Abby?"

"They're fine. He's with your dad at the golf course right now. We want you to come back for Christmas. Your father already agreed to spend the holiday with us. So what do you think?"

"Let's talk about that when it comes closer. I've got some homework I need to finish. I'll let you go, Katherine. Relax about my issues with your son okay?"

"I can do that as long as you promise to fix the issue."

"I'll do my best. Bye Katherine."


	13. Lecture Time

"OLIVIA!" Fitz yelled her name as he continued to pound on the door to her apartment. "This is getting ridiculous Olivia. Open the damn door. I know you're in there."

Liv sat on her bed listening for the past hour to him yelling her name and knocking on the door. She thought after ten minutes he'd give up and let it go but she didn't have that luck. Olivia still didn't want to talk to him and had no plans of opening the door. He'd been calling her for two weeks and still she wouldn't answer. She'd left her apartment a couple of times to get a bite to eat across the street and down the road to get groceries but she wasn't going to talk to him if she could help it. Jake brought over pizza for them along with her notes a few nights before but other than that she hadn't talked to him.

Suddenly it got very quiet in her apartment, the knocking had stopped from outside. She slowly went to see through the peep hole to see if he was there, he wasn't.

Going through her homework she realized that she would have to go to Fitz's lecture the next day or she would be booted out of the program. Having no other choice, Olivia decided she better finish her homework and get ready for the lecture the next day.

Waking up the next morning, Olivia got herself ready for her lecture. She threw on a pair of jeans and a Georgetown t-shirt with her tennis shoes and fixed her hair. Liv had been talking herself into going all night reminding her that it wasn't a big deal. She thought if she sat in the back of the room, Fitz wouldn't even notice she was there.

Olivia carried her books in front of her heading to the classroom she was in for the lecture. She slowly opened the door realizing she was the first one there. Going to the desk she signed her name into the attendance sheet and went to the top of the room sitting down in the corner desk.

After a few minutes Jake walked in doing the same and came to sit next to her.

"Glad you made this lecture, Liv," Jake told her pulling out his notebook. "It's supposed to be good."

"I'm sure it is. Hopefully we can start soon so I can go home."

"You feel okay?"

"I'm fine. I just want to be home right now."

"Did Grant ever get ahold of you? He said he had something about an assignment for you."

"Nope, haven't heard from him. I wouldn't expect to either."

"Are you hiding from him?"

"Of course not. I've got nothing to hide from. Especially him." Olivia tried to be convincing even to herself. There wasn't anything she should be afraid of him for. He's only Fitzgerald Grant, her professor and her late best friend's brother. Nothing more. There's no reason to be hiding from him.

Olivia and Jake talked for a few minutes while the room filled up. Fitz was one of the last to walk in.

He set his things down on the front desk and looked over the attendance sheet. He went down the list looking for Olivia's signature. When he saw it, he started to look around for her. Fitz found her and was furious she was sitting with Jake talking to him again.

"Ms. Pope," Fitz yelled her name grabbing her attention. Olivia turned to face the front looking down on him. "I'd like a meeting with you after we're done here in my office."

"Sorry, Professor. I can't make it today."

"Make an appointment and keep it, okay?"

"If I have time."

Fitz's eyes narrowed on her now irritated with her responses.

"Please be sure to find time."

Olivia turned her complete attention back to Jake ignoring Fitz. When they heard the chalk scratching down the chalkboard everyone got quiet to start listening.

"I know you all were thinking I was going to be talking about politics today but I'm actually going to lecture about a specific historical politician."

Fitz turned around and wrote a name on the board.

 _Thomas Jefferson_

"This isn't a history class but for today, it is," Fitz told them. He turned back and wrote another name.

 _Sally Hemings_

"Now, we've all heard about these two but they weren't just a fling. They had the real thing." Fitz couldn't help but keep his eyes on Olivia as he spoke. All the way from the front of the room, he could sense her shaking.

Olivia didn't know what the hell he was thinking but he was making it very bad.

"But Professor Grant," Amanda spoke up when he didn't call on her raised hand. "These two have nothing to do with politics."

"But they do," he said still looking at Olivia. "A lot of things happened between Thomas and Sally. Even happened that he gave her at least four children. Thomas publicly announced his hatred of black people. Of all of them. Blacks were meant to be slaves. He treated them like dirt even though four of his kids were half black. But behind closed doors… he loved them. Thomas loved Sally even though he wasn't allowed to show it. He gave the kids he had with Sally spare moments but that was it. Sally deserved better. She deserved to have someone take care of her not just when he felt like it but all the time."

"And he still treated her like shit. He didn't know anything about her and he still treated her like dirt," Olivia mentioned. Olivia knew where this was headed and didn't like it. Without really talking about them that's exactly what Fitz was talking about.

"If he had really known her, he wouldn't have treated her like that."

"He didn't have to know her. Sally was his slave. He used her and he left. He'd done it multiple times enough to have four children with her."

"He had four kids with her because he loved her," Fitz reminded her.

"Please, he had sex with her because she was an easy lay. That's all she ever was to him."

Fitz knew what Olivia was referring to and hated that she thought about them like that. She didn't understand them and he didn't to clarify it to her.

"Sally was young when the relationship started…"

"Oh, it was a relationship? Because it seems like he was just the toy he had that worked her ass off for him."

Olivia felt all eyes in the room on her. Somehow this lecture turned into a fighting match of who was right about the affair and everyone in the room was confused.

"It was a relationship. They just started off on the wrong foot. He wasn't… it wasn't the right time for them to be together."

"So had it been later on when she was, I don't know, maybe sixteen, he would have stayed for her."

"Thomas wanted to stay with her. He loved her."

"And yet he banged every other woman he could get ahold of. "

"The only other woman Thomas ever was with was his wife. And that is pushing it. He was loyal to Sally."

"Very fascinating, Professor. So you're telling us that Mellie Smith is just a random fuck buddy he got off the street?"

Fitz was beyond pissed off at her now. She had no right to bring up Mellie in his lecture. Fitz threw the chalk at the board and stared at her.

"Class dismissed. My office NOW, Ms. Pope."


	14. In Trouble

"You must be sick," Jake told Olivia packing up his things. "You did a great job pissing him off. What were you two really arguing about?"

"Jefferson and Hemings affair. That's all we were fighting about," Liv said looking at her bag.

"Well he's really pissed off now. You should just go home and let him cool down."

"That would only make him angrier. It'll be fine. He'll yell some more and that'll be all. It's not like he can do something terrible to me."

"He could if he wanted to. He could have you thrown out of the class and then you don't graduate in spring. Liv, I really think you should ignore him tonight."

"I'm going to his office Jake."

"If you insist on going, then I'm going with you."

"I think you're missing the armor, knight."

Olivia put her books in her bag and followed Jake down to Fitz's office. He knocked on the door and jumped back when Fitz's angry face appeared in front of him.

"What the hell do you want Ballard?" Fitz nearly screamed.

"Could I have a minute of your time now? I'd like to…"

"Tomorrow."

"But, Sir…"

"I said tomorrow. Get out of my sight."

Jake turned back to see Olivia who nodded telling him to go. Fitz's eyes never left hers. When Jake left down the hall, Fitz stood back and let her in his office. Once she was inside, he slammed the door behind her.

Unsure of what to do, Olivia stood beside the door hanging on tightly to her bag. She watched Fitz sit on his desk, his jaw clenched as he stared at her. Liv waited patiently, but uncomfortably, for him to say something. Carefully looking around, she noticed the lamp that was on his desk shattered into pieces on the floor.

"What the fuck were you thinking? Fitz yelled at her. "You do not go into my lecture and undermine me! You had no right to do that."

Olivia rolled her eyes and bit her tongue.

"Something to say?"

"Nope," Olivia said looking at the ceiling.

"Oh I know you do. You want to mouth off so bad."

"You don't know anything about me Professor Grant. If I had something to say, I'd say it."

"Fine. Be stubborn then." Fitz slid off the desk and back to his chair. "The shit you just caused in my classroom will never happen again. Do you understand that?"

Olivia nodded letting him continue.

"Mellie has nothing to do with anything involving you and me. Got it?"

Again, Olivia nodded.

"That little scene you showed in there was disgusting. You're acting very petty and jealous."

"How else am I supposed to act?"

"Like an adult. Like a very reasonable person."

"I've been your babysitter, your counselor, your parent…"

"You seem to be very cozy with Jake. Are you fucking him?"

Olivia stared at him like he had two heads, her eyes wide. She couldn't believe that he just asked her that. "Excuse me?"

"It's a straightforward question. Are you fucking Jake Ballard?"

"Now who's acting petty and jealous? How is that any of your business?"

"So you are. Interesting. I didn't take you as the slut kind."

"I would watch my mouth if I were you."

"Why? You going to run to my mother? I think she'd be very interested to know that you're a whore."

Olivia took a few steps closer to him looking straight in his eyes. Before he could get up, Olivia punched in the nose making it bleed.

"Take that to Katherine, asshole."

Fitz grabbed a tissue out of the box on the desk holding it to his nose. As he did Olivia walked over to the door ready to leave. Just as her hand was on the handle Fitz grabbed her waist pulling her away from the door, his nose still bleeding.

"Let go of me!"

"You just assaulted me. Sit your ass down."

Fitz took her bag and threw it to the other side of the room. He set her in the chair across from his desk as he grabbed another tissue finally getting the bleeding to stop. Olivia crossed her arms giving him an evil look.

"If you think I'm going to apologize you can think again. I'll be expelled from Georgetown before I EVER apologize to you," Liv barked.

"And I don't expect you to. I have no expectations of any sort of apology from you. I've been an ass and I deserved that punch. Which I think you may have broken my nose, by the way."

"It would serve you right."

"I don't disagree."

"Good."

"Do you like Jake?" Fitz asked her. He closed his eyes afraid of the answer.

Olivia sat in the chair not saying anything. He repeated the question to her. "He's a friend. My only friend in DC."

"We could be friends," he smirked.

"We couldn't be friends. We are so far away from friends we're on different planets."

"Did you listen to any of my messages? Read any of the texts I sent you? Or did you ignore all of them?"

"I listened to them. I read them. How does that change anything? You're still you. That won't change."

Fitz knelt down in front of her since she refused to look up to him. He got down so he could see her eyes as he spoke. "When you left my apartment two weeks ago, it finally made sense how I knew you. That night on the ranch seven years ago was amazing. I was so drunk that night that I thought all of it was some sort of dream that has haunted me for every night since then. So I've been a bit frustrated trying to figure out how you were real. And had you come to my office like I asked on the first day, all of this could have been avoided. I know this is my fault. Instead of being pissed off that you didn't show up I should have gone to find you. I haven't been thinking clearly lately. Then when you sent blue roses to Katie's memorial, and I still couldn't figure out who you were I got even more irritated with you. Olivia, I really need you to hear me when I say this. You are the exact thing that I've needed for years. Maybe if you hadn't run off when you woke up the day after, my life would be completely different."

"So you're blaming…"

"No; I'm not blaming you. My life is entirely my fault. Everything that has happened between when we met the first time and now is completely my fault. I have no one to blame but myself. I've made plenty of mistakes and that's probably going to affect a lot of things in the future. And it would affect you too. But what I mean is that you and I are the real thing."

"How can you say that? You don't know anything about me. Just because I gave you my virginity doesn't mean you know me. And I made the biggest mistake giving it to you. You left me that morning. I woke up and you were gone. Do you have any idea how that felt?"

Fitz moved to his knees and put his hand on her face. "It was wrong of me to just leave you there. I was going to get you breakfast but when I came back you were gone. I didn't know where you went. And trying to ask anyone where you went would have looked very suspicious and bad. Especially since Katie said you left the night before to go home. No one knew you spent the night in the hay with me. It probably wasn't the greatest night. I'm sure you had better after that." Fitz pushed the thought of her with another guy out of his head. "Livie, I want to put the past behind us and move on. I want to make you feel special because you are my something special."

"You've caused a lot of issues for me. I thought after the night at the ranch that it was me. That there was something wrong with me. In seven years I've been afraid to let any get close enough to me. I pushed Katie away because I didn't think you wanted to see me again. And that didn't go well. I've missed having a friend to talk to. And I should have been there for Katie but I wasn't. That's my fault. I suppose we've both had our issues and we're both pretty fucked up. I'm nothing special. I'm just me."

Fitz ran the back of his fingers across her cheek and stood up. "Come on, time to go."

"Where are we going?"

"Home… to my apartment. You haven't eaten anything in a while and you've been sick."

"And how would you know that I haven't eaten anything?"

"I… am going to be in so much trouble if I tell you."

"Spit it out, Professor."

"I've been trying to find a time to corner you so we could talk. You ignored my texts and calls for two weeks and we really needed to talk. So I've been following you and Jake and I sat outside your apartment for hours. I told you we had to talk, Olivia. You left me with no other option."

Olivia sighed and let it go for now. She picked up her bag and followed him out.


	15. Defining

"Are you going to say something or are we just going to sit here all night?" Olivia said making him jump. Fitz and Liv sat in his apartment for an hour in silence. He had been staring at her for the past twenty minutes not saying a word. Olivia sat with her knees towards her face looking at the wall to avoid his gaze until she had enough.

"What do you want to talk about?" he asked calmly still looking at her.

"You are the one who wanted us to come back here. You said we 'need to talk' and that's what I came here for. So let's talk about whatever it is we need to talk about. I want to go home sometime this century."

"Why did you leave that morning?"

"Because you left. I didn't know where you went. I went to look for you but when I couldn't find you I just went home."

"Oh."

"Oh?"

"I went to make you breakfast and bring it back."

"Well that was nice of you." Olivia wanted to ask him a question but didn't feel that it was her place to.

Fitz watched her open her mouth several times but nothing came out. He had an idea of what she wanted to say. "You can ask."

"Ask what?"

"About her. About Mellie."

"How did you know I…"

"I can tell by your face. You want to know who and what she is but you're afraid of the answer."

"It's none of my business."

"I'm making it your business. Anything that Mellie is to me is not important. She's not important to me. We had a thing before but it's over. It's been over for years, she just doesn't accept that. I don't want her. I want whatever I can get with you. And I don't mean a sexual relationship so stop thinking about it like that. Being around you makes me want to be better. You make me better."

"Really? Did you use that line on Mellie too?"

"Olivia… no. We weren't like that. Mellie and I were… we fucked all the time. That's all that we ever did. There was no relationship past that."

"And I'm a whore."

"She had absolutely no right to call you that. And I'm sorry about that. She doesn't think about what she says before she says it. And I'm not defending her. I've been with woman but she was the absolute worst person I've ever met."

"How long were you two… together?"

"Three years. But that was a very long mistake."

Olivia wasn't sure what to say to him after that. "Well… do you have anything to eat?"

"I'll order something." Fitz got up and ordered take out for them pouring her a glass of red wine. "Food will be here soon."

"Thanks."

Both of them sat in comfortable silence while they waited for their food. When the food arrived, Olivia sat on one end of the couch with Fitz on the other silently eating.

"Your mother invited me to Christmas with your family," she told him. "I know that's jumping the gun from now since it's a month away. I don't have to go if you think it's a bad idea."

"What would you be doing if you weren't with my family?"

"I'd be here. I'd stay in DC and study. I mean, I study all the time but… it's not a problem. I'll be here. Christmas in DC sounds amazing."

"Liv, I'd love to have you join us for Christmas. And since my mother invited you, I don't think it was a request that you come. It was more of a demand. So one way or another you will be joining us for Christmas."

Olivia picked at her food for a minute while Fitz ate his waiting for her to say whatever was on her mind.

"What are we doing?" she asked very unsure of what was happening.

"What do you mean?"

"We're sitting in your apartment eating Chinese food and talking about what plans to make for Christmas in a month. I just caused a huge scene in your class." Realizing what she just said, reality hit her. Olivia got up putting her shoes back on grabbing her bag.

Before she got too far away from the couch Fitz grabbed her arm.

"Olivia!" he kept yelling her name to get her attention. With his grip around her wrist she finally looked at him. "What's wrong? What just happened?"

"Don't you realize this situation? We're going to be in so much trouble."

"No one is going to be in any trouble. Especially you. We're fine."

"There's rules. You are my professor. We aren't supposed to be anything more than professor and student."

"We had a preexisting relationship before you were my student. The school will understand that. Besides, it's none of their business what we are."

"I highly doubt Amanda Tanner will see it the same way."

"Amanda? What about her?"

"Oh please, she's been trying to get in your bed all term."

"She's not getting anywhere near here. Amanda is an annoying pest that doesn't know when no actually means no. I've been looking for a reason to get rid of her. Liv, nothing else matters to me other than you. Sit back down and enjoy dinner with me, please?"

She gave it a moment of thought and sat down again picking up her food.

"I don't want to sound girly or anything," Olivia started. "But do you think we need to define this?" she said gesturing between them.

"Do you think we need to?"

"I just don't want to be in some limbo spot."

"Where do you think we should start at defining this?"

"Well," Olivia bit her lip before she asked, "are you seeing anyone else?"

"No; I haven't been seeing anyone in a couple of years. Are you? Jake?"

"Jake and I are only friends. He's asked me out a few times but I keep telling him no. He's not my type. And I've only been focusing on school."

"Were you seeing someone before you got to DC?"

"Yes. And I do not want to talk about him. He's… I just don't want to talk about him."

"Then we won't. I want to know you, Liv. But I'm not going to push my luck and make you run again. If you want to tell me about him at some point later, I'm here to listen."

"Alright, thank you."

After a while of talking, Olivia ended up falling asleep in Fitz's arms on the couch.


	16. Christmas Eve

"All settled in?" Katherine knocked on the open door to her son's bedroom in the house.

Fitz and Olivia had been dating, in secret, for five weeks. Their long talk the day after the public fight led to them being together for good. Every night Olivia would come over for dinner at his apartment and head home before dark except on the weekend, she would spend with him.

"We're fine, mom," Fitz told her putting his arm around Olivia. "When do you think dinner will be ready?"

"Just a few more minutes. Liv, your father's downstairs waiting to see you when you're ready."

Olivia moved away from Fitz putting her bag down next to the door. Katherine watched out of the corner of her eye and walked out.

"What's the problem? I told you nothing is going to happen while we're here. Liv, we can share a bed just like we have every weekend for a month now. So what's the issue?" Fitz asked crossing his arms.

She bit her lip looking back at him. "I may or may not have told my dad about us," Liv whispered.

"You what?" Fitz nearly screamed. "Olivia, you said that you told him. You told me he was happy for you. How the hell could you not tell him?"

"I tried to tell him. I just couldn't do it. He knows that you are my professor and he said he was glad that you were doing something useful to someone and not thinking about yourself for once. I tried to tell him that we were together but he didn't give me a chance to say anything. We can tell him together, today. We can tell him right now."

Fitz sat on the bed shaking his head. "I can't believe you didn't tell him. I told mine."

"Yes but you don't get along with yours and that makes a difference." Olivia bent down on the floor in front of him. "Look, I know you're mad at me for not telling my dad but come on. How about we go downstairs and tell him now?"

"Alright, let's go then."

Olivia went with Fitz downstairs to see her dad with his family at the dining room table.

"Livia, there's my girl," Eli said getting up to hug his daughter.

"Fitz and I are a couple," Olivia shouted.

"Okay, Liv," Fitz stepped in front of her. "That was a bit much. Probably should have started with 'hey dad'?"

"Right, sorry. But he knows now," she joked.

"You two are a couple?" Eli pushed between them. "Since when? Why didn't you tell me?"

Olivia looked at her father seeing his disappointed look. "Because I didn't want that look. I didn't want to have to deal with your disappointment of how you think of him."

"You barely know him Olivia. How can you be in a relationship with him? Do you know anything about him?"

"I love him!" Olivia shouted. "I know that I love him and that's all I need to know. Anything that I have to know about him I already know."

Fitz was stunned that she actually said that she loved him. Unable to speak, he sat down next to Abby.

"Eli, maybe we can discuss this after dinner?" Katherine suggested putting the turkey on the table.

"There's nothing to discuss, Katherine," Olivia told them. "I love Fitz and that's all there is to be said. Dad will have to deal with it."

Eli didn't speak to Olivia or Fitz for the rest of the night. Before he left he kissed Olivia's cheek and told her he'd be back in the morning.

 **Okay everyone, so I'm having a bit of writer's block. I've got an idea for another story but as we all know how life goes, this might have to wait. For now, this story is on a break until I can think of how to continue with this. Thank you for taking the time to read these and leave your reviews. Keep an eye out for anything to be posted!**


	17. Saying Three Words

"So, you love me?" Fitz asked Olivia as she put on her nightgown.

Liv sat on the edge of the bed looking at him. "I only said that to make him be quiet. I didn't mean anything by it."

"Then you don't. Okay."

"That's not what I said."

"What did you mean then? I'm just wondering what you were thinking."

"My dad needed to stop talking and actually listen for once in his life about what I wanted. So I told him that I love you."

"But you don't?"

"Fitz, do you want me to tell you that I love you or what? What exactly are you looking for from me?"

"Just tell me what you are thinking. Tell me anything."

"Fine, I do love you but I don't expect you to tell me the same because I said it. And I don't want you to think I said it because I wanted him to shut up because I do love you whether you love me or not. I said it at the wrong time but I won't take it back. So take it as you want but that's what I said and it's what I meant."

Leaning up, Fitz covered her lips with his and kissed her. "You talk too much."

"Thanks."

Fitz laid back with Olivia laying next to him. She quickly fell asleep as Fitz drew circles on her arm like he always did.

He watched her fall asleep before he bent down and kissed her cheek telling her how much he loved her like every other night.

"You made me sweat for an hour before you said that," Liv told him rolling over to see his face.

"I thought you were asleep."

"I usually am but I know you have said it a hundred times before. I can't believe you made me sweat for an hour!"

"Wait a minute, you know I say that I lo…" Fitz paused unable to finish his sentence. "You know I say that?"

"I know you tell me you love me every night when you think I'm asleep."

"And you didn't say anything to me why?"

"I didn't know if you wanted me to hear you say it or not. So I went with it."

Fitz kissed her again and laid back holding her for the night.


	18. Seeing A Ghost

"So what do you do?" Fitz asked the gentleman next to Abby.

"Well, I do a lot of things but I work at the Jay & Jay firm. I'm a senior attorney there," he told him.

"And you've been dating my sister for how long?"

"Edison and I haven't been dating, Fitz," Abby put in. "We're just friends. Unlike you and Liv. Which you've been dating for how long?"

"A few weeks. But we aren't talking about us."

"Where is Olivia? I've heard so much about her, I'd love to meet her," Edison added.

"Sleeping beauty will be awake soon."

Olivia woke up a bit later than usual. Everyone was waiting downstairs for her to wake up so they could open presents. Eli had walked in and yelled up the stairs for her to wake up. Liv got ready pulling her hair into a ponytail and putting on her jeans and a t-shirt. Going downstairs, Fitz met her and kissed her good morning.

"Hey, you had breakfast without me?" Liv asked tasting the syrup on his lip.

"You took so long to wake up. I'll make you something before we open presents."

Fitz led her through the hallway to the kitchen and made her pancakes. Once she had her breakfast they went into the living room where everyone else was.

Abby stood up moving to hug her. "Liv I want you to meet someone." Taking her hand, Abby took her further into the living room. "This is…"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Liv demanded to know.

"This is Olivia, I guess I didn't put them together," Edison smiled.

"Cut the shit. Why are you here?"

Fitz moved closer to her stepping in front of her so she couldn't see him.

"What's going on?" Fitz asked moving to eye level.

"Get him the fuck out of here. NOW!"

"Olivia, is that really any way to treat an old friend?" Edison asked moving closer to her.

"Fitz, I swear to God if he comes any closer to me I will cut off his balls."

"Still my tough girl."

"Get him the FUCK OUT of here," Liv yelled leaving the room.

Fitz turned to Abby and she knew the look.

"What the hell did you do to her, Edison?" Abby asked.

"We were friends before," he told them.

"I'm going to check on Olivia. Abby, handle this."

Olivia went upstairs to the bedroom and sat down on the bed starting to cry. Fitz ran up the stairs to see her.

"Okay, you're crying that's really not good. How do you know him?" Fitz asked sitting next to her.

"He's part of my past. The part I don't like to talk about."

Fitz could remember Olivia saying that she had a past boyfriend that she didn't like to talk about.

Katherine sat in the living room watching the interaction and didn't like that Olivia ran upstairs crying.

"Abby, your friend needs to leave," Katherine told her.

"I have to agree with your mom," Eli added in.

"I want to know how you know her Edison. How do you know her?" Abby asked.

Fitz asked her again how she knew Edison.

"We used to date," Liv answered.

"Used to. Did he hurt you? He cheated on you?"

"No he didn't cheat. He was…"

"Livie, tell me what happened. Did he hurt you in another way?"

"Fitz can you please let it go? We used to date and now we don't. That's all that matters."

"You freaked out when you saw him, sweet baby. What happened?"

"We got into a fight and it ended badly."

"How badly?"

"Just badly."

"So you got into one fight one time and it ended badly enough to break up."

"No it was our last fight."

"What did you fight about?"

"Fitz let it go. It doesn't matter anymore."

"It does matter. If he hurt you I want to know. I want to be able to protect you."

"You don't need to protect me from anything. He's not part of my life. I just want him out of here. I don't want to see him."

"Livie, he did something to you that hurt you in some way. You were shaking the second you saw him. You looked pale like you were going to pass out. What happened?"

"He pushed me down a flight of stairs! Damn it Fitz, shut up now! I don't need to relive it."

"He did what?"

"I fell down a flight of stairs."

"He pushed you?"

"Yes, there are you happy now?"

"No! I'm very far from happy! Did he leave marks on you?"

Olivia took off her t-shirt and turned around in front of him. Fitz had never seen Olivia without a shirt on. Now he could see the scar that dragged across her back diagonally from the left side down to the right.

Beyond pissed off, Fitz ran down the stairs screaming.

"Where's that ass hole!" Fitz yelled coming down to the living room. He pulled Edison up by his shirt and started to punch anywhere he could get him.

Edison tried to fight back but Fitz was faster and knew how to dodge his hits.

"FITZGERALD!" Katherine screamed trying to get his attention. Tom got up trying to stop Fitz.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tom asked pulling him away from Edison.

"That son of a bitch pushed Olivia down the stairs!" Without a second to spare, Tom turned around punching Edison in the face. Quickly, Eli got up joining the men and punched him in the shoulder dislocating it.

Katherine looked at Abby with the most serious face she had ever seen. "Get that piece of trash out of my sight. And don't ever let me find out you've been around him again."

"Mom, that's not fair. How do we know she's telling the truth?" Abby asked making Fitz turn to her ready to hurt her.

"Olivia has a huge ass scar across her back. He mutilated her skin! There was no way she's making this up."

"Edison," Eli faced him. "Get out of here and don't ever come back here again unless you never want to be heard from again."

Seeing the fire in Eli's eyes, Edison got up from the flood and left as fast as he could.

"Why didn't she tell me about this?" Eli asked sitting down.

"She didn't tell anyone Eli," Fitz told him. "She never said anything to anyone."

"She didn't tell me either," Abby said.

Olivia put her shirt back on and came downstairs.

"He's gone?" she asked poking her head around the corner.

Katherine came over to her hugging her gently. "Sweetie, I'm so sorry. Why didn't you tell us? I'm sorry, we should have known."

"Katherine, you didn't even know I was dating someone. It was when Katie and I weren't talking. We're done with this conversation. I just don't ever want to see him again."

"You won't, Livia," Eli told her. "I'm going to make sure that you never seen him again."


	19. Misconduct

"Why do you look upset?" Fitz asked. The look on his face showed pure worry when she opened the door for him to come into her apartment. "What's wrong?"

Olivia handed him the letter she received in the mail when she returned home after the first week of classes. Unsure of what it was she called Fitz and asked him to come over. The tone of her voice had him running to the car and speeding his way down to her apartment.

Fitz stepped in and closed the door reading the letter.

 _ **Georgetown University  
Office of Misconduct**_

 _ **Ms. Olivia C. Pope,**_

 _ **It has come to our attention that there may have been an act of student misconduct shown from you in the fall term. A hearing has been scheduled for Thursday this week at four pm in the Dean's office. Please respond by confirming you have received this letter.**_

 _ **Sincerely,**_

 _ **Richard Parks, Dean of Students**_

"Did you cheat on a test?"

"Really, Fitz? Because I would cheat on a test. Why are they telling me to be there? I haven't done anything wrong!" Olivia yelled throwing her books to the ground from the table.

"Livie, everything is going to be fine. There's probably a misunderstanding somewhere. You'll figure it out when you go on Thursday. It's not a big deal," he told her pulling her into his arms by her waist.

"They said it was an act of misconduct! They aren't going to send me a letter if it was something small. Do you think this could have anything to do with the fight we had at your lecture?"

"No one was paying attention. It wouldn't matter. Just relax and put it out of your mind. Come on, I'll take you to dinner."

Without fighting it, Liv put on her coat and followed him to the car.

"So you think they'll be in trouble?" Jake asked eating his sandwich.

"They broke the rules, of course they're going to be in trouble. The question is which one will be in more trouble."

"Amanda, I really think you've jumped over the coo coo's nest this time. I know you want Grant but he doesn't seem to be into your type."

"And what type is that?"

"The self absorbed, only give when it's good for me, bitchy type. And how do you know about them? Right now, it's your words against theirs and right now, they have two and you are one. You're going to lose and then look like an idiot."

"I have picture proof. They aren't going to get away with anything."

Fitz picked up his mail after taking Olivia home from dinner. Going through it, he found a letter from the university and opened it.

 _ **Georgetown University  
Office of Misconduct**_

 _ **Mr. Fitzgerald T. Grant,**_

 _ **It has come to our attention that there may have been an act of professor misconduct shown from you in the fall term. A hearing has been scheduled for Thursday this week at four pm in the Dean's office. Please respond by confirming you have received this letter.**_

 _ **Sincerely,**_

 _ **Richard Parks, Dean of Students**_

Fitz pulled out his cell phone and called Olivia.

"I know what they want."


	20. Meeting With The Dean

"Hey, Olivia!" Jake called her name from down the hall. Liv slowly turned around to see who was calling her and Jake could see the sadness all over her face mixed with nervous. "You don't look good. Are you going to throw up?"

"I'll be fine. I have a meeting with the Dean for some misconduct thing," she told him.

"Ouch, that's gotta suck. Anything I can do?"

"Could you shoot me?"

"Why shoot a pretty little thing like you? I'm sure it's nothing. Someone probably just copied off your test and they want to talk to you about it."

"Yeah, we can hope. I'll see you around."

Olivia pulled her backpack higher on her shoulder and walked towards the Dean's office. She could see Fitz standing outside the door waiting for them to let him in.

"Oh good, you're both here," the man came out of the office. "I'm Richard Parks, nice to meet you Ms. Pope. I'm sorry it had to be under these circumstances though. Fitz, why don't you and Ms. Pope come in?"

Olivia followed Fitz into the office with Mr. Parks right behind her. Closing the door, he introduced the other two people in the room. Ms. Amy Flannigan and Mr. Henry Stone he called them.

"Richard, what are we doing here?" Fitz asked sitting down.

"I've been informed of student misconduct and it's our job to investigate. I don't like this either but it's part of my job. Amy, please read the allegations," Richard said.

Amy put on her glasses and looked down at the paper. "On December 23, you, Mr. Grant were seen with Ms. Pope at the airport holding hands about to board a plane headed to California. Not only holding hands but you were seen kissing Mr. Grant, Ms. Pope."

"Is that a crime?" Olivia asked the three sitting at the desk.

"Ms. Pope, you are very bright. That much I can see from your records," Mr. Stone started. "We have rules regarding professor student relationships. And yours is against our rules. Fraternization outside of class and these offices is prohibited. You are aware of that, aren't you?"

" I…" Liv started to say before Fitz interrupted her.

"I believe we have a right to face our accuser. Where did you get this information from? How credible is it?"

"We have photos, Mr. Grant," Amy spoke up. "Time stamped photos."

"I'd like to see them."

"By all means," Amy said handing over the photos. Fitz looked through the pictures seeing him and Olivia kissing outside the gates to the plane. "As you can see these photos are accurate. They show the two of you kiss…"

"I have eyes Amy. I've very well aware of what I see. Who brought these to you?"

"They want to stay anonymous," Richard said.

"They?" Olivia spoke up. "I know I have a right to face my accuser; just like Mr. Grant said. So I would like to do so."

"Ms. Pope," Henry put in. "This is not a court. We just want to find out if there was any misconduct going on. The pictures that show the two of you kissing, though, are very convincing that something was happening between you and Professor Grant. The consequences of your actions can be very severe. We need to know if you were pressured into anything by Mr. Grant or if it was of your own free will. Depending on your answer, the consequences are subject to change. You could be expelled."

"I wasn't pressured into…"

"Ms. Pope, be quiet," Fitz yelled at her. Olivia jumped at his tone looking at him. "I would like a private meeting between you, Henry, Amy, and I, Richard. Now would be great."

Richard nodded. "Ms. Pope, please step into the hall until you are asked to return."

"What? No, this isn't fair!" she screamed.

"Ms. Pope, being fair is not what is being discussed. Step into the hall until we come get you," Amy told her.

Olivia looked over at Fitz for some sort of support but he refused to look at her. After a moment she went into the hall slamming the door behind her making all of them jump.

"That doesn't sound good," Jake said moving away from the door.

"What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. I guess it went bad in there?"

"It's going very badly. It's not over yet. We… I was just told to leave the room. I don't know what's going on now."

"Want me to wait with you?"

"Thanks but no thanks. I'd like to just be alone for now."

"Okay, call me if you need anything, alright?"

Olivia nodded and sat on the bench watching Jake walk away.

Richard put down his pen and crossed his arms. "Speak your piece."

"Ms. Pope and I have been friends for years. She was best friends with my late sister but I didn't recognize her when she first arrived to my class on the first day. She never told me who she was and I never thought to ask. When my mother came to visit they ran into each other and we've been closer since. None of this is Ms. Pope's fault. Everything that has happened is my fault. I pushed her into seeing me every day. She got no special treatment from me in regards to her grades in my class. I have all of her work and you can see for yourself how brilliant she is. Don't make her pay for the things that I have done. When my sister died, Olivia was there and knew what I was going through. Yes we have a connection but I'm going to surrender myself to save her. Olivia means a great deal to me. Don't ruin her chances at a good education because of my relationship with her. Everything is my fault. I pushed her to have dinner with me all the time or just to come over and watch TV with me. And the pictures show that I was the one that controlled our relationship. I wanted Olivia to come home with me to California so she could see her father and be with people who love her for Christmas. She was going to sit in her apartment and study all break if she didn't go with me. Richard, don't punish her for my mistakes. I know I should have come to you and told you about our past relationship but I didn't think it mattered," Fitz took a breath. "Olivia has had a bad life and I just want to make it better for her. And if that means that I need to step away and let her be then I will but don't make her suffer because of me. She's already done that enough."

They all listened to Fitz talk and were surprised. The Fitzgerald Grant that they know would have thrown anyone under the bus to save his own ass.

"You give us a lot to think about, Fitz," Amy said. "But she is a consenting adult. She knew what she was getting into."

"I didn't give her a choice Amy. I told her she had to be with me or drop out of my class," he lied. "I knew she needed my class to graduate in May. Olivia had no choice."

Henry sat forward rubbing his forehead. "You blackmailed her?"

"Essentially, yes."

Richard set down his pen and looked at Fitz. "We have to suspend you, Fitz. For the rest of the academic school year you are not to be on Georgetown campus. You are to have no contact with Ms. Pope. We'll have to discuss your contract in June before we start the fall semester. If you do have any contact with Ms. Pope between now and the end of the school year, you will be fired. Without hesitation. I'm sorry to say. Is that understood?"

"Yes."

"Okay, Amy please ask Ms. Pope to come back in," Richard told her.

Amy went into the hall and had Olivia come in. She stood by the door looking between the faculty advisors and Fitz. He still refused to look at her.

"Whatever he told you, he lied. He never made me do anything I didn't want to do. Fitz tell them! Tell them that it's all a big misunderstanding," she pleaded. Olivia came around in front of him kneeling down to see him eye level. "Tell them we love each other. Fitz, tell them how much you love me."

"Ms. Pope, please have a seat," Richard told her.

"NO! You're all confused. This is all wrong. Fitz tell them," she started to beg him.

Richard watched Fitz unable to look directly at her. "Take a seat, Ms. Pope." Olivia moved slowly to the seat across from Henry. "Mr. Grant has explained the situation to us. We want to apologize for the misconduct that he has shown during your time here at Georgetown. Furthermore, Mr. Grant has accepted his responsibilities as your professor. You are not to have any contact with Mr. Grant again. If we find out that you did have any sort of communication with him, we will have no other choice than to expel you. Do you understand the consequences if you break this rule?" Olivia nodded. "Great, then it looks like we are all done here."

Fitz walked out of the office heading out of the building. By the time Olivia was able to leave he was nowhere in sight. Richard had her wait with him to draw up the agreement and made her sign it taking two hours to get the agreement done.

Having no car, Olivia ran to get a cab and told them to go to Fitz's apartment. She took the elevator up to his apartment and used her key to get in. Liv yelled his name running through his home trying to find him but was not there. She ran into the bedroom only to see his clothes were gone. Sitting down on the bed, she found a note on the night stand.

 _ **I'm sorry**_


	21. I Don't Know

"This better be important. It's five in the morning," Katherine spoke into the phone not looking at the id.

"I'm so sorry, Katherine," Olivia sobbed on the other side.

Hearing Olivia's voice and more so that she was crying, Katherine was wide awake now. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm sorry. I forgot about the time difference. Call me when you wake up."

"I'm awake now Olivia. What's the matter, sweetie?"

"Is Fitz there with you? Have you talked to him?"

"He's not here. Not for a few weeks. After the administration made their decision he flew here. Liv, what's going on?"

"Could you please just tell him to call me? It's important that he call me. Sorry I woke you up."

"Olivia, I know you. You don't sound okay which means you aren't okay. What happened?"

"It's nothing. I really need to talk to Fitz though."

"I'll be on the next plane out," Katherine told her and hung up.

"What's wrong with Olivia?" Tom asked her sitting up next to his wife.

"Something has happened but I don't know what. She said she really needed to talk to Fitz. But we all know she can't talk to him. They'll both be in trouble and I don't want that for them. I'm going to go see what's going on."

"I'll pack your bag while you get a shower," he said giving her a kiss. "Whatever has happened, she'll need you there."

Katherine arrived just after six in the evening and went to Olivia's apartment. When Olivia opened the door she could tell that she was crying and probably hadn't stopped in a while. Stepping in, Katherine pulled her into her embrace and hugged her tight.

"Alright, let's get you something to eat," Katherine told her.

Olivia brushed her hair then her teeth and got dressed walking out with Katherine to the cab. They went into a small diner than Olivia liked and sat down ordering their drinks and food.

"Spill it Liv. I know there's something wrong. Is it because of what the administration said?" Katherine asked.

"Part of it. Fitz hasn't been around to see you at all?"

"Not since they made their decision."

"He told them everything was his fault. That he blackmailed me into this disgusting affair and it's not true. I was a willing participant. He didn't make me do anything that I didn't want to do. But they didn't listen to me. He wouldn't listen to anything I had to say. And then he completely ignored me and left. Not just the building, he packed up his things and left the city. I don't know how I'm supposed to do any of this without him. How could he just leave me like that?"

"Olivia, he's trying to protect you. They were going to throw you out of Georgetown. Fitz couldn't let that happen to you. You've worked so hard for all of this and he wasn't going to let you throw it away for him. You deserve to be here."

"I missed seven years of being with him after we first met and now I'm losing even more time with him. I need him now more than ever. I don't know what to do Katherine."

"Why do you need him? You are so strong and independent. You've never needed anyone to show you how to do anything. For as long as I've known you, you've never needed a second person to add in their two cents. What makes Fitz so special?"

"I cannot raise a baby by myself, Katherine."

"What baby?" she asked before really thinking about it. "Olivia are you pregnant?"

"Two months pregnant. I screwed up. Badly. This never should have happened and now I have no idea what to do."

"What are you thinking of doing?"

"I don't know."

"No, don't give me that. You are Olivia Pope. I don't know is never an answer. Somewhere in that brilliant mind of yours you have an idea of what you want to happen. So what do you want to happen?"

"I want to see Fitz. I have to tell him about the baby before I make any other decisions. This needs to be our decision together." Katherine sat quietly listening to her as the waitress brought their food and drinks. "Fitz needs to have a say in this."

"Put Fitz aside, Olivia. You and I both know he cannot have any contact with you. It's over between you two. You have to think about what you want to happen."

"But it's his baby too."

"I know that but you and he aren't to have contact. If you do, you'll be expelled and he'll be fired. So what you need to do is think about yourself for once in your life. Right now, this is about what you want. If you want to get an abortion, we'll figure it out. Or we can do an adoption or if you want to keep it. Whatever it is you want to do, Liv, Tom and I and your father will all support you."

"I want to tell Fitz."

"That isn't an option." Katherine knew she was being hard on her and probably sounding very cruel but she had all the best intentions. If the school found out that Olivia and Fitz spoke in any way they both would be kicked out of Georgetown and never be able to have the live they wanted. Katherine wanted to tell her so badly what Fitz had told her but she knew Olivia was the worst at lying, so she couldn't risk it. "What else do you need?"

Olivia thought about it for the rest of the meal. Neither of them said anything. When the waitress came over with the bill, Katherine handed her the money telling her to keep the change and headed out with Olivia.

"I want to keep the baby. I don't know if Fitz really did love me or not but I love him and I cannot give up the last piece of him that I have."

"Then it's settled, you keep the baby and we'll do whatever it is that we need to do later."

"This situation really sucks."

"I know, Liv. Believe me, I know."


	22. Telling Tom

Tom waited at the airport a few days later for Katherine's plane to arrive. They spoke every morning when she woke up while she was in DC and every night before she went to bed. He could tell from her voice that whatever was going on with Olivia wasn't good. Katherine told him that she would tell him about everything when she got home. He met her at the gate taking her bag seeing that she was upset. Tom hugged her and took her to the car.

"So what happened?" Tom asked when they got on the highway.

"Our son happened."

"What did Fitz do this time?"

"I have to tell you but you can't tell anyone, not even Fitz."

"What did he do? How much money is it going to cost to get him out of this?"

"Not money this time."

"Really? Money usually gets him out of all trouble."

"Olivia's pregnant."

Tom pulled the car over and looked at her. "He got her pregnant?"

"Yes, but we can't tell anyone. Fitz can't know. They aren't allowed to speak to each other. But Olivia wants to keep the baby. She wants to tell Fitz but he'll be fired and she'll be expelled. She's worked too hard to have it all be messed up now. So I told her we'd help her in any way that we can."

"And we will, off course. Right after I kill our son."

"Tom, he doesn't even know about it. Fitz cannot know that Olivia is pregnant."

"So we're hiding it from him? We aren't telling him anything about the baby?"

"Yes, we are not telling Fitz anything about the baby."

"Fine. I won't say anything to anyone."

"Thank you, sweetie."

"Of course. Let's get you home."


	23. Backfire

"Your plan totally backfired, Jake," Amanda yelled at her standing in her apartment. "You were supposed to help me get Fitz with me."

"How is it my fault that he left the city?"

"You wanted to tell the board about their affair. You wanted to get him in trouble."

"And he did," Jake replied. "That bastard got in plenty of trouble. So much that he left town."

"He wasn't supposed to leave town. How are you going to fix this?"

"Me? I'm not fixing anything. I got what I wanted."

"We had an agreement! You can't stop until I get what I want."

"How am I supposed to do that? I don't know where to find the man. Go look for him yourself if you want him so bad. But from what I hear you've been all over Professor Raines for the past two months since Grant left."

"But I want Fitz!"

"Too bad, you aren't getting him. Accept and move on."

"You are a complete ass hole!"

"Thank you!"


	24. Visit Home

"Have you spoken to Olivia?"

"And put her in danger of losing everything she's ever wanted? No Tom, I haven't," Fitz barked at him.

"I think you should. Send her an email and tell her you don't hate her. Something straight to the point," Tom told him.

"I'd love to but when the board asks if she's had any contact with me she'll be in trouble and she is an awful liar."

Tom sat down and drank some of the Scotch he poured himself. He really wanted to tell Fitz that Olivia was pregnant but promised Katherine that he wouldn't say anything. But he never promised that he wouldn't hint at it.

"She could really use you right now. She's going through a lot. And Eli's been giving her a hard time about it. He's not being very supportive. Luckily your mother is doing great helping Liv but she can only do so much."

"Eli's giving her a hard time about her schooling again? God he has nothing better to do? She works her ass off and still doesn't get what she deserves."

"She's doing great with school. Liv's always done great with that. I just know that she really misses you."

"I miss her too but there's nothing I can do about it. When June comes I'll be able to tell her everything. And I'll beg her for forgiveness about me leaving but she'll understand that it was the best thing to do."

"June may be too late. Olivia really needs you now."

"Did Edison go near her?" Fitz screamed ready to hunt Edison down and kill him.

"No, nothing like that. Just, Liv really needs you right now."

"Why? There's something you aren't saying."

"Fitz, Liv is…"

"Fitz I need your help in the kitchen," Katherine came into the study interrupting them at the perfect time.

Nodding, Fitz went to the kitchen leaving Katherine with Tom.

"You swore that you wouldn't tell him," Katherine scolded him.

"The boy has a right to know that she's pregnant. It is his child too. He could be there helping Olivia through this pregnancy instead of you flying out there every other week. You're getting tired."

"Are you trying to say I'm getting old?"

"No, of course not. I'd never get dinner again," Tom smirked and kissed his wife.

Fitz pulled out the biscuits from the oven and set them on the counter. He waited for Tom and Katherine to come in so they could sit down with Abby and eat dinner.

The meal was pretty quiet at first until Fitz had enough.

"What the hell is wrong with Olivia?" he finally yelled.

"Fitzgerald, there is nothing wrong with her. Liv is perfectly fine. You know the rules the board put into effect for you," Katherine told him.

"Then why is he so adamant that she needs me more now?"

"Olivia misses you. That's all he's telling you about," she replied. "There's only a few more months left."

"There's two months, three weeks and six days until I can see her again. June first cannot come soon enough."


	25. Nursery Colors

Olivia sat in the waiting room with Katherine at the doctor's office. She was 20 weeks pregnant and was going to find out the gender of the baby. Liv was even more upset than usual since she was going to find out today. She really wanted Fitz to be there when she found out but there was no way that he could be there.

The nurse called her in and Katherine followed her. She took Olivia's weight and temperature going through the usual checkup. Liv sat on the table ready for the doctor to come in.

"Do you want to know, Liv?" Katherine asked flipping through a magazine.

"Yes. Wait, no. Yes I do. No. Not until Fitz can know."

"You know that's not going to happen, Olivia. Fitz isn't going to know about the baby."

"Have you talked to him? Has he said anything about me?"

"I have told you a hundred times since I arrived yesterday, I haven't talked to Fitz. And I don't know when I will. You and I are going to figure this out together. We'll work it out. Now, I want to know what color I need to paint the nursery."

"Katherine, I already told you that I'm going to get another job and raise the baby myself. I can take care of the baby on my own."

"And how do you expect to do that? Who's going to watch the baby? How are you going to finish school?"

"I'm not going to finish school. After May I'll be done with school. I'll have enough of a degree to get a job."

"Absolutely not. You are going to finish school and get that degree that you wanted all along. There's no point in fighting me Olivia. You and I both know that I will win."

"Fine! Fine, you win. I don't know how this is supposed to work."

"We'll figure it out."

The doctor came in and set up the ultrasound.

"There's the arm and leg and…" the doctor paused and looked at Olivia. "Do you want to know the sex?"

Giving a quick glance at Katherine, she nodded.

"It's a girl."

"Really?" Liv asked looking at the ultrasound. "Katherine it's a girl!"

Katherine looked at the picture of her granddaughter and smiled.

"There's her lips and her ears. And here's her heartbeat. She can hear you a little now. You can talk to her and she'll be able to get to know you're voice."

Without thinking Katherine bent down to Olivia's stomach. "Hey baby girl, it's grandma! I can't wait to see you sweetie. You've gotta stop giving momma heartburn though. It makes her really grouchy. I love you baby."

"Don't listen to grandma, angel. She's just a bit off today."

Katherine rolled her eyes and sat down smiling at Olivia. The doctor moved the ultrasound away and printed off a picture and gave her a disk with the baby's heartbeat.

Olivia got off the table and got ready to leave. Katherine took her out for lunch before Olivia had to go to class.

"So we can paint the nursery pink," Katherine said.

"Pink and yellow. I think it'll be cute."

"What about names?"

"I don't know. I think I'll wait on that. There's enough about the baby being a girl today."

"Alright, you think about names and I'll get the nursery ready."

"Katherine, you have no idea how helpful you've been. And that you want to take care of everything. I really appreciate it."

"But?"

"I have to do some things on my own. Fitz isn't going to be around but I'll need to take care of her myself."

"You cannot take care of her yourself. Liv, you're going to need help. There's going to be a lot of sleepless nights and bottle feedings and diapers to change. I want to help you and you're going to need help. Just let me help you. You'll move back to California and move in with us. Tom and I have already discussed it and he agrees that you'll need us. Eli isn't talking to you. So he's not going to be useful but you still have us."

"I know and thanks for that. I just really wish that Fitz would talk to me so I could tell him about our daughter."

"I know you do."


	26. Graduation Day

"You're really showing now, Livia," Eli told her getting out of the car when he arrived at the school for her graduation. He kissed her cheek and shook hands with Tom and hugged Katherine.

"I'm nearly six months, dad. I think I'm supposed to be showing," Liv smirked.

"Yes but you look like you're about nine months. Are you having twins and didn't tell me?"

"Eli," Katherine put in, "she's a bit hormonal right now and let's not make her snap before she gets her degree. And she's not fat. You look amazing Liv."

"Thanks."

Olivia led them all into the auditorium to get their seats while she went with the rest of her graduating class. Katherine took pictures of everything knowing that she would eventually show Fitz. Until then, she'd have to hide them from him for a bit. At the moment, she had no idea where Fitz was. For all she knew, he could be in Ireland since he had wanted to vacation there for so long.

After the ceremony, Tom and Katherine went back to the hotel before dinner while Eli went with Liv to help pack up her apartment.

"I'm just wondering why you want to go live with the Sinclair's instead of getting your own apartment and raising the baby yourself," he told her.

"And how do you suggest that I raise a baby by myself and still go to school?" Liv snapped at him. "Katherine is going to help me with the baby. Don't worry; your granddaughter will be very well taken care of, regardless if you help or not."

"What makes you think I wouldn't help?"

"Considering this is the first time that you and I have actually talked in months, I'm not going to hold my breath for your help."

"That's not fair, Olivia."

"How is that not fair? I called you three months ago and told you I was pregnant and you hung up on me. I called you on your birthday and Easter and every Sunday since and you have not answered the phone at all."

"So you turn to Katherine instead?"

"Well she is like a mother to me and since this is her grandchild as well, yeah I did. You didn't want to talk to me and I needed someone there."

"I'll admit I was angry when you told me you were pregnant. I was shocked. You've ruined your life. A baby wasn't part of the plan until much later. And it came in the middle of everything."

"This baby did not ruin my life. I know it wasn't part of the plan but going to Georgetown wasn't part of the plan either and that's turning out fine. Plans change. That doesn't mean that I'm still not going to work my ass of like I always have to get whatever it is I've needed."

Eli sat on the bed while Olivia was on the floor packing her books. He ran his hands through his hair. "What do you need?"

"I need you to be supportive of whatever it is I need to do. I can't rely on Katherine all of the time. Eventually Fitz is going to find out that I'm pregnant and be very upset or ignore me for the rest of forever and I'm going to have to accept that because I listened to Katherine. But there's also the high possibility that Fitz already knows and wants nothing to do with me like Katherine said. I can't ask Katherine to watch the baby all the time. I need some help from other people but if you don't want to be part of her life, I understand. I know you aren't a fan of Fitz's and that's fine. But I do need you to be a fan of mine."

"100 percent. I'm your biggest fan. Whatever you need, Livia. Anytime."

"Good, thank you. Right now, I need help getting off the floor."


	27. See The Nursery

"This is amazing! Katherine, this is way too much! She's got her own apartment here. You really did too much," Olivia screeched when she saw the baby's nursery.

"This is what you wanted, isn't it Olivia?" Tom asked.

"It's how I imagined her nursery but that was like a dream. I'd never be able to give her the room I really wanted to give her and you made it here."

"We're here to help whenever you need, Liv," Katherine added.

Olivia looked around the room that was painted dark pink and bright yellow. There were butterflies painted on the walls and a butterfly mobile hanging over the white crib in the corner. When she walked into the room the first thing she saw was the living room area that had a black couch and rocking chair with a coffee table in front of it. To the left of the room had a changing table stocked full and a walk in closet with her clothes hanging up. When she turned around to see the complete room, Olivia noticed the mini fridge and microwave in the corner next to a TV mounted to the wall. Katherine noticed the confused look on her face.

"For the late night feedings. We didn't think you'd want to go all the way to the kitchen to feed her," Katherine informed her.

"That makes a lot of sense. What's this door for?" Liv opened the door leading into a private bathroom.

"The door across from you there, Olivia," Tom spoke up, "leads into your bedroom. It makes it a lot easier to get to her if you're asleep."

"How did you guys think of all this?" Liv asked coming back into the nursery.

"We've been through this a few times."

Thinking about it, Katherine started to lose her smile. When Olivia looked back, she saw Katherine's look. "You turned Katie's bedroom into a nursery."

"Katie would want us to," Katherine told her.

Olivia walked over to them and hugged both of them. "Thank you both, so much. I don't know what I did to deserve you guys in my life but… just thank you a million times. I promise that the baby and I won't be any trouble at all. You'll hardly notice we're here."

"Liv, we're here to help you. That's why we did this. Katherine and I want you to finish school as far as you want to go. A baby should not hold you back from what you really want. Yes, it is an obstacle but I'm sure that you can push through this; even if Fitz isn't involved."

Liv's eyes grew wide. "I never even thought of that. What's he going to do when he finds out we're living here? Oh my God, Fitz is going to be so pissed off. He didn't want anything to do with me to begin with and now he has a kid with me. Shit! Why didn't I think of this earlier?"

"Olivia, he's not going to be…"

"He's going to have to work it out himself," Katherine interrupted. "Whether Fitz wants to be part of your life or not, we're going to help you. Remember what the doctor said about your blood pressure? It's already too high, you can't stress over him, Liv. Why don't you go lay down in your room and Tom and I will bring your bags up later and help you get settled?"

Olivia nodded and went into her room.

"What are you doing, Katherine?"

"I have a plan. You have to trust me. This is for the best. For everyone involved, this is good for them. It won't take much longer. It's just for a couple more weeks. Just trust me, Tom."

"Whatever plan you have in your head, had better work. This is getting to be too much for me to keep up with."


	28. We Meet Again

"I'm sure that I can manage this myself, Katherine. You don't need to worry about me," Olivia told her. "I just want to go by myself today. You and Tom have been doing so much already. I'm just going to go get her clothes."

"Okay, let me know when you are ready to go and I'll pick you up," Katherine said as Olivia got out of the car.

Olivia went through several stores looking for clothes for her daughter. With it being June in California, the weather was pretty warm out. Deciding to opt out of her jeans, Liv threw on a sundress this morning and put her hair into a ponytail. The dress drew all attention to her baby bump. It was a bit tighter but she liked the way it was so comfortable. Liv went through the first side of the street stores before deciding to get lunch. She waited for the light to turn to walk for a few seconds. Finding a restaurant that she could sit outside in, she went in and ordered.

"Olivia?" she heard a man say her name. Liv sat silently drinking her lemonade the waitress brought her not saying anything. He came over and sat down across the table from her. "Well, I didn't expect this."

"Didn't expect what, Professor Grant?"

Liv saw him flinch when she called him Professor.

"I think we need to talk," Fitz told her.

She looked him over, only seeing that he looked exactly the same.

"I think the time to talk was probably five and a half months ago. Sometime then would have been a lot preferable then right now. Before you made decisions for both of us without any consideration to me."

"I was thinking about you. That's why I told the board it was my entire fault."

"Whatever Fitz, I have other things I need to do."

"No, we need to talk."

"Katherine is on her way to pick me up. I've got to go"

Olivia stood up and threw a few dollars down on the table walking away with the bags. Easily, Fitz caught up to her.

"I'll take you home and we can talk."

"Why don't you go back to wherever it's been for the past several months and ignore me? You've been doing a great job of that. Let's go back to that."

Olivia got away from him and got into the car with Katherine. Katherine drove home and as they pulled in, Fitz was right behind them. He got out of the truck and opened Olivia's door.

"I'm not going to let you keep walking away from me just because you're upset about me doing what was best for you."

"All you had to do was discuss it with me before you did anything!" Liv screamed at him.

"Olivia," Katherine stepped between them. "Remember about your blood pressure, you need to relax."

Liv took a deep breath and let it out. "You're right. I'm going to go put the clothes away. Thank you for picking me up."

She left Fitz standing with his mother outside. "What did you bring her here for?" Fitz asked.

"She lives here, of course. Her and the baby live here."

"When was all this decided? Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"You knew the rules the board put in place. There wasn't anything I could tell you that wouldn't make you go running back to DC to see her. And we both know that if you did, she'd be expelled and you'd be fired. I did what was best for both of you so you're going to have to live with it."

"So in the meantime, Olivia is pissed at me and thinks that I abandoned her and possibly even hates me. Thank you so much mother," Fitz nearly yelled.

"I know that you're pissed. I knew you'd be pissed when I did it. But I did what was best for both of you."

"I'm going to go talk to her."

Fitz went into the house going up to the second floor looking for her. Before he found Olivia he saw the nursery that was Katie's old room. When he walked in he noticed Olivia putting clothes on hangers in the closet.

"You look very…" Fitz started unable to find a food to finish his sentence.

"Pregnant?" she suggested.

"Yeah. How far along are you?"

"Six and a half months." Liv watched Fitz try to figure out when she conceived out of the corner of her eye. "Christmas sound familiar?"

"So the baby is mine?"

"No, while you were gone I turned friends with Amanda Tanner and decided to sleep with all the other professor's so I have no idea whose child this is."

"Sarcasm is not your best feature."

"And being an ass isn't yours."

"Come on, Olivia. Give me something to work with."

"Because you've given me so much?"

"Liv…"

"You told the board you blackmailed me so I got the grade. You said I had no choice about anything that happened. If you wanted to end it with me, you should have just told me."

"Why would I break up with you?"

"Who knows what reasons you had?"

"I was never going to break up with you."

"Really? Hard to tell. You left the city with only a note left for me saying you're sorry."

"If I didn't do something they were going to expel you! You worked too hard to go to Harvard and you already missed one year of Harvard. I wasn't going to let them take another year away from you."

"Well guess what? There's no Harvard. There's not going to be any Harvard. So it was all for nothing anyway. I worked for years to get to Harvard and it's not ever going to happen. I got pregnant and I'm not going to Harvard."

"Why didn't you tell my mom to tell me about the baby?"

"I begged her to tell you but she told me the school wouldn't allow it. She didn't want either of us getting in trouble."

"I guess she knew what she was doing."

"Katherine is usually right."

"So you're living here and they turned Katie's room into a nursery. I'm assuming it's a girl?"

"Yes, we're having a girl."


	29. Not Loving You

"Where have you been for months?" Olivia asked Fitz while they laid in bed together.

"Here and there," he answered.

"No, really, where have you been?"

"I took care of business that needed my attention. I did what I had to do to make sure that we could be together when my contract with the school was over. I just didn't think that there was going to be a baby involved so soon."

"Well it's not like I planned to be pregnant during college either." Olivia wanted to ask more questions but didn't want to ask for the fear of the truth.

Fitz laid in the bed with Olivia's head on his chest staring at the ceiling. They had told each other that they would tell the truth when questions came up.

"Ask what you want to ask, Olivia. I don't want you to question anything."

"Did you see her? Wait, I don't want to know."

"You do or you wouldn't have asked. I did go see Mellie."

Olivia moved off him and back to the side of the bed. Fitz went to grab her hand but she was faster than him.

"Why did you need to see her? What could you possibly have to gain by seeing her?"

"I found the closure that I needed."

"You slept with her."

"No."

"It wasn't a question, Fitzgerald. You slept with her, of course you did."

"I did not sleep with that woman."

"What did she do that you needed closure for?"

"I was still upset with her over something she did a few years ago. She took away something that I wanted without discussing it with me first. So we got into a fight and broke up. She calls every now and then to apologize and hope that I'll forgive her but I never will."

Sitting up, Olivia looked in his eyes seeing all the hurt he had gone through. "You always said that everyone should be forgiven."

"She's an exception."

"Why? What makes her different?"

"She wasn't in the right."

"What the hell did she do?"

"Mellie aborted my child."

"Oh."

Fitz stared at her waiting for her to say more. "That's all you have to say?"

"What else should I say? I can't really say what I want to say."

"Just say what you want."

"I'm sorry your ex-girlfriend is a fucking bitch. She never should have done that. Why did she get an abortion?"

"She didn't want to be a parent. Even in name only."

"She's a selfish bitch."

"Agreed."

"I wouldn't get rid of our child. She's our daughter and I wouldn't get rid of something that was both of ours. And if I thought about that, I would ask your opinion first and we'd discuss it together."

Fitz moved to her side of the bed and kissed her. "Thank you."

"I thought about it for half a second. But even if you didn't love me I'd still keep our daughter."

"Well, me not loving you is never an issue."


	30. Show Time

"KATHERINE!" she heard Olivia yell her name. Katherine looked at the clock on the nightstand seeing it was only four in the morning.

"MOM GET IN HERE!" Fitz screamed for her. Tom jumped out of bed with her and ran to their bedroom.

"What happened?" Katherine ran into the room looking at Olivia. "How much pain are you in?"

"It feels like someone is trying to cut off my stomach."

"Show time, let's go!" Tom yelled heading downstairs. He started the car while Katherine grabbed her bag and Fitz picked up Olivia.

It only took ten minutes to get to the hospital but felt more like an hour with all of Olivia's screaming. When they got to the hospital everything was ready for their arrival. The doctor met them at the entrance and took them up. She took Olivia's vitals and saw how dilated she was.

"Ten centimeters, you're ready to go, Liv," the doctor told them. She instructed Fitz to get dressed into scrubs and told Katherine and Tom they had to wait in the waiting room. "Do you want the drugs?"

"No, natural. We agreed we could do it natural," Liv answered.

The doctor got everyone into their positions and told Olivia to start pushing. Fitz encouraged her all he could and Olivia did her best. Forty-five minutes later the doctor told her to take a deep breath and do it again. Before Liv could let out the breath she took in, her heart monitor started to beep faster than it was.

"She's crashing," the doctor yelled. "Get paddles, the baby's in distress too."

"What's going on? What did you do!" Fitz screamed at her.

"Nurse, get him out of here."

Doing as she was told, the nurse pushed Fitz out of the room so the doctor could work.

Not knowing what to do, Fitz went back to the waiting room finding Eli, Tom, and Katherine standing there.

"How did she do? Is the baby okay?" Katherine asked quickly.

"Olivia crashed and the baby's in distress. They're doing something now and told me to get out," Fitz told them.

Katherine hugged Fitz as tight as she could and moved to sit down with him. "Liv's going to be okay. They know what they are doing."

For an hour no one said anything. They all sat quietly in the waiting room waiting for news of Olivia and the baby.

After a couple hours, a nurse came up to the waiting room and Fitz stood up.

"Is she okay? Are they alright?" he asked quickly.

"I'm so sorry, sir. The baby is just fine, but your wife didn't make it. She lost too much blood during the delivery. The doctor will be out to speak to you in a few minutes. She'll take you to see her when she comes out."

Fitz sat back down and cried hard. Katherine leaned over and held him as he did.

"Fitz, I'm so sorry," Tom told him.

"She's with her mom and Katie now," Eli said, "She's in a better place. She's not in any pain."

Continuing crying, Fitz nodded to both their statements. After a few minutes, the doctor came to find them with a big smile on her face.


	31. Naming

"What happened in here?" the doctor asked. Everyone was crying and she was coming in with good news.

"Olivia's dead, don't you think that's something to cry about?" Eli asked her a bit pissed off.

"Who told you Olivia's dead?"

"That nurse you sent in here."

"Oh dear," the doctor worried, "Erica told the wrong family. I'm so sorry, she's new here. Olivia is perfectly fine. Both she and your daughter are in the room recovering."

"Really? Olivia is fine?" Fitz asked standing up.

"Yes she is fine."

"Can I see her?"

The doctor led Fitz down to room and opened the door.

"Thank God, you are okay," Fitz said nearly running to her side. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I've been a lot better. Want to hold your daughter?"

Fitz pulled the chair over to her and took his daughter in his arms. He looked her over seeing her caramel skin and full brown hair with his blue eyes. "She's so beautiful."

"I was thinking about her name."

"You have one in mind now?"

"Now that I've actually seen her. I think I have her name."

"And what is it?" Fitz couldn't take his eyes off of his daughter.

"Madison Katie Grant."

"Madison, Maddie. I love her name. I thought we were going to do Pope-Grant."

"I actually decided that my last name should be Grant. We've been married for a month and I've been living in the Sinclair house with the Sinclair's and you're the only Grant. We're married it seems like I should be a Grant too. And our daughter is a Grant. It'd be so much easier to just have the Grant name for all of us."

Fitz stood up and kissed her giving Madison back to her as he sat on the bed. "Then we'll have both your names changed to Grant."


End file.
